LOVE, absolutely
by Sailor-Nova343
Summary: Seychelles falls in love twice in one day, Lili tries to deal with her crush on her 'big brother', Lovino freaks out when Antonio shows up again, Elisabeta tries to decide between two guys, Toris and Feliks find each other again, and more! Multi-couples!
1. LOVE

This is my first Hetalia fanfic, so I hope it's okay! Loosely based on Love, Actually, but I don't own the movie or Hetalia Axis Powers. Hope you like it, and reviews are adored!

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><p><strong>LOVE, Absolutely<strong>

Chapter 1: **LOVE**

Seychelles gasped as she ran past the clock on the wall: she was going to be late on her first day! Panicking, she shoved her pop-tart into her mouth, tugged her school uniform's sweater over her head, and glanced in the mirror. Gasping in horror, she seized her hairbrush and began to brush her hair furiously, devouring her pop-tart like a maniac. Finally, she grabbed her two red ribbons and tied them in a bow around her pigtails. Making a rude hand gesture at the clock, she paraded down the stairs, grabbing her bag from the sofa, and swung the door open.

"Bye, Mom!" she called cheerfully. Her mother responded with a rather muffled 'Bye', her mouth full of toast.

Seychelles grinned to herself and closed the door behind her, taking her first steps into the world as a student at her new school. She walked importantly down her street, waving to neighbours, and petting familiar cats and dogs, smiling at the world.

As soon as she rounded the first corner, her smile fell to be replaced by a worried grimace: What if nobody liked her? What if she failed her classes? What if she got the day wrong, and she was going to be seen trying to get into a closed school? What if she was wearing the wrong uniform? She sank against the wall, her mind reeling with all sorts of awful scenarios, the fact that she was late somehow forgotten.

"Stop it." she told herself sternly. "You are a very nice person, usually. Nobody's going to hate you. And just think of all the wonderful things that can happen at school! You can meet new people! You can make loads of friends! You can meet a hot bo-"

"_Bonjour_, _ma chérie_." Seychelles' jaw dropped. She looked up to see a _hot, _tall guy with gorgeous blue eyes, shoulder-length blonde hair that looked softer than possible...and he was wearing her school uniform. Not only that, but he seemed incredibly familiar... "_Tu te souviens de moi, n'est-ce pas, ma belle Seychelles_?" And his voice was incredibly...seductive. Seychelles could feel her knees going weak as she sagged a little against the wall. This was a dream. This had to be a dream. He still remembered her. And he was more beautiful than he'd ever been.

"F-Francis? _Oui_, of course _je me souviens de toi_! ...Are you going to _la mème école que moi_?" she asked eagerly. The beautiful young man in front of her smiled and winked at her -an action that made her heart pound furiously- before taking her hand and tugging her towards him in a friendly hug. Seychelles was in heaven, she was sure.

"_Bien sûr, ma chère. Tu es encore plus belle que tu étais la dernière fois que nous avons étreint_." he whispered in her ear, making her blush.

"Francis, _Je suis tellement heureuse de te voir! S'il te plaît, peux-tu me dire à propos de l'école?_" she asked eagerly, her broken French a little rusty from lack of use: Francis had been the one to teach the language to her, all those years ago... Seychelles beamed when Francis looped her arm through hers and told her he'd be glad to explain as they walked to school, which had surely started by now. As Francis explained about how the school had so little funding there were only a hundred or so students and only a few teachers, Seychelles zoned out and remembered the time she'd first met Francis.

It had been summer, back when her knees were chubby and her mother was too busy to watch her all day. Francis had worked at a French ice-cream parlour just down the road, and Seychelles would often sit there for his whole shift, eating the free sundae he gave her, and listening as he explained loads of things she didn't understand about the world. He was the one who had given her the red ribbons for her hair, telling her they made her look even more beautiful than she normally was. He was appalled when she had said that she didn't know French, and immediately began to teach her. During that summer, she learned French better than she had English, seeing as she'd only spoken English for three months before meeting Francis. The two summers after that, Seychelles would always return to the ice-cream parlour, to talk to Francis. Then one day he was gone, and the manager had said that he'd moved, but he'd left her a free sundae coupon with a heart and a little love note from him in French. Seychelles' young heart had been broken, but now that they were walking arm-in-arm to school, it was completely fixed.

"_Nous sommes arrivés, ma belle Seychelles._" Francis said, and when Seychelles turned, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Seychelles felt all warm and fluffy inside, like she'd eaten a live dove. Ew. Never mind.

"_Est-ce que nous sommes dans la mème classe?_" she asked eagerly, looking all around her at the tiny school: it had the appearance of being terribly grand and important, with archways and pillars and huge windows, but it was, quite honestly, tiny. The size of half a soccer field, if that. It did have two floors, but Seychelles suspected that quite a bit of the space went into the gym.

"_Je ne sais pas, ma petite fleure. Quelle numéro de classe as-tu?_" he asked, tugging fondly on the red ribbons in her hair. Seychelles frowned, trying to remember.

"Erm..._.Je pense que j'ai numéro 1_." she said, trying to visualise the number on the letter she'd received two weeks ago. Francis beamed at her.

"_Magnifique! Je suis dans la première classe aussi! _Ohonhohonhon..." he chuckled, and she cheered happily. France casually checked the silver watch on his wrist and mock-gasped. "_Je pense que nous allons courir._" he said, giving Seychelles a teasing smile.

"_Pourquoi?_" she asked, tensing.

"_Parce que.._." France said in a husky whisper, bending low. "_Nous sommes vignt minutes en retard!_" Seychelles let out a wavering cry of horror.

"_Mierde! Um, où est la classe_?" she asked, panicked, but she didn't have to worry: Francis grabbed her wrist and began running, pushing open the front doors and making his way down a hallway, finally stopping in front of a large door with an ornate gold 1 on it.

"_Içi, cherie. Je suis très heureuse que nous sommes ensemble encore_." he said, holding her tenderly before opening the door. Seychelles' knees were still weak, either from the run or from Francis' arms around her, but she managed to shuffle inside behind France.

XxXxXxXxXx

Lili leaned back against the brick wall opposite her house. Or rather, the house she'd been living in for the summer, and hopefully would be living in for a long time. It belonged to her great aunt and uncle, but they had accepted her very willingly into their family, so she supposed that the house was sort of hers, too.

She scuffed the shoe of her black Mary Janes in the dirt as she waited, allowing herself a small smile: today was her first day of school at her new school. She was excited, but mostly scared. School had never been her favourite thing. She preferred to spend time outside, having picnics or playing in parks with her big brother.

Lili's smile widened slightly at the thought of her second cousin. Vash had been the first person she'd talked to since she had run away from home, and the only person she'd really trusted since her father's arrest. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the first time she'd seen her second cousin, so many nights ago...

_She was running, so much slower than before, now that she was exhausted, but she couldn't stop. It was so cold, and if she fell asleep now, she might die. Lili started to cry again, surprised that she still could, as she slumped against a brick wall and held onto it for support. No matter how awful things seemed right now, it was so much better to be outside, cold, and starving than inside...back home...with him._

_ Lili began stumbling down the street as the rain pounded down onto her. She laughed shakily when she saw that her dress was ripped and dirty: how many times had she been reprimanded for dirtying or tearing it? Her long braids were soaked with water and her feet ached horribly...had it been the wrong choice to run out with no shoes? She sighed, but it came out as a whimper, like a crying dog. She had walked slowly for about four blocks, clinging to the brick wall, the only thing stopping her from collapsing to the ground. _

_Thinking that she must surely be there by now, she dug in her pocket for the address, but her hand met nothing but soaked fabric. Lili felt her heart stop as she frantically looked around her, behind her, scrabbling at her pocket: it was gone. That was the last straw. She was wet, she was cold, she was bruised, she was cut, she was hungry, and now she was completely lost._

_ She sank down onto the cobblestones into a puddle, leaned against the wall, and began to cry harder. This was the worst, the very worst. Thoughts of eating garbage, or turning into a prostitute just to survive swept through her mind. Or maybe she could go back...no. That was the only thing she wouldn't do. Finally her tears ran out, and she sat against the wall, staring up at the clouded, dark sky. _

_This was the end. She felt sick, her stomach emptier than it had ever been. This was it. She sadly thought of all the things she'd wanted to do...fly a kite...dress up for Halloween in a sexy maid costume...walk with a boy, sharing an umbrella...have kids...get married...kiss somebody she loved on a rollercoaster..._

"_Hey. Are you okay?" An unfamiliar voice snapped Lili out of her reverie. Slowly, she looked up at a boy who looked to be her age. He was holding an umbrella. Lili didn't know what to say, so she just looked at him. He looked nice, she thought dazedly as she watched his expression change. He had shoulder-length hair that was kind of choppy and ruffled, a pretty pale blonde colour. His eyes were green, and he was wearing a jacket. Lili thought ruefully of her own tattered appearance. _

"_Here," the boy said, and Lili jumped in surprise. He extended a hand towards her. "Come with me. I promise I won't hurt you. Do you want some food?" Lili's heart leapt at the thought of something to eat. _

"_Okay." she said feebly, taking his warm hand and struggling to get to her feet. He brought her into his house where his mother fussed over her and his father called the police, asking who she was, etc. It was a crazy coincidence that the boy who had saved her had actually been who she was looking for...her second cousin. _

"You're still here?" Lili looked up to see Vash walking towards her, surprise on his face. Lili blushed faintly, worried that maybe she shouldn't have stayed.

"Um, I just wanted to wait for you." she said shyly, looking at her feet. Vash watched her for a moment before smiling slightly.

"Okay...thank you." he said kind of awkwardly. They began walking together down the street. After two blocks, Vash looked down in surprise at his hand. Lili was looking down, and had brushed his hand. Vash smiled and took Lili's hand, starting to warn her about all the dangers there were at school.

"...and be especially careful of perverts, or creepy people. Generally, you can recognize them from their creepy laughs, or weird sounds they make, but sometimes they hide them, so you have to be careful." Vash explained as Lili listened. Well, half-listened. She was really thinking about how nice it was to hold hands with him. She'd wanted to do this all summer. Every picnic they had, every walk they took, she had wanted to take his hand. And now she had, and it was all warm and smooth...

"Do you understand?" he asked suddenly, and Lili blushed.

"Y-Yes! Of course. Thank you for the...um...heads-up." she said lamely, mentally face-palming for being so dumb. Vash just smiled at her before looking away.

When they got to the school, Lili wondered if Vash would make her let go of his hand, because he was embarrassed, but he didn't: he kept holding it all the way to her classroom.

"I'll see you at break, and at lunch, and after school. Our classes take gym together, too, so I'll see you then as well. Is that okay?" he asked and Lili nodded, blushing. She didn't know why, but whenever he looked at her intently with his beautiful green eyes, she blushed. Probably because...she liked his eyes. When they looked at her. Argh.

"Okay." she said, stepping slightly closer to him unconsciously. He smiled.

"Have fun, okay? I'll see you later." he said, leaning forward as if he wanted to kiss her head, but he stopped and patted it instead.

"Bye!" she waved as he walked down the hall, and stepped into her new classroom. It was kind of small, but Vash had said that it was a really tiny school, anyways. There were about ten other kids there, but she was early so the others would probably come later. Most of them talked amongst themselves or drew or...what _was _that one guy doing...?

Lili bit back a grin when she realized that he was dancing. There was a seating plan written on the whiteboard, and Lili found her name and sat at the corresponding desk. She was in the second row from the front, right in the middle. She took out her sketchbook and began doodling flowers and shoes all over a page in the back. She turned the page, bored, and gasped, heat flooding her face when she saw the first page she'd ever drawn on in this book: it had a bad sketch of herself, in a tower, and her big brother on a horse below.

The words 'Together Forever' were written in curly cursive in the sky, entwined with hearts. Her face flaming, Lili flipped the page back to the one with the shoes. It was one thing to like Vash like a brother, but if he ever found out that she... Lili shook herself a little, slipped the sketchbook safely back into her bag, and stared out the window, trying to calm herself down. She often wondered if she was a freak, an incestuous weirdo with a big-brother fetish and perverted thoughts.

Lili grinned slightly as she remembered the time she'd searched on Google if marrying Vash was legal, and her crazed euphoria when she found that it was. She mentally slapped herself, ordered herself never to think of Vash like that _ever _again, and focused her attention on the front of the class as the bell rang. Ten minutes later, she disobeyed herself. As usual.

At 8:43, two late students came inside. The teacher scowled and began to mark them late. One of them was a tall guy with shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He winked at her flirtatiously, and Lili averted her eyes. She focused instead on the girl behind him. She seemed to be vaguely trying to hide, looking shyly around the classroom.

She had pretty dark brown hair that was tied in two pigtails (or Angel Wings, as Vash called them when Lili wore them) with bright red ribbons in bows around them. She had nice tanned skin and big brown eyes. Lili smiled at her when she looked over. She seemed to be nice. The teacher finished marking them late, and sent the blonde one to his seat, keeping the girl up at the front. Lili grinned as the girl made a funny face that one generally associates with 'Eek'. She clearly just wanted to sit down. Lili sighed, glad that _she _didn't have to stand up there.

"Could everyone who is new to the school stand up here at the front?" Oh crap. Lili got up as quietly as she could, nervously making sure her skirt wasn't caught at the back as she walked up to stand next to the other girl. Nobody else stood up. Great.

"Okay, girls, could you please introduce yourselves? Just tell us a little bit about yourselves, and maybe answer any questions the class has for you?" the teacher asked nicely. Seychelles looked expectantly at Lili, who copied her expression.

"One of you, please." the teacher said kindly. Lili cleared her throat and stepped forwards, seizing her bravery in her fist and shaking it around. Or that's what it felt like.

"Um, hello. My name is Lili, and I am...new here." there was a small laugh from the girl next to her, and Lili flushed, but smiled. "I'm...I'm good at sewing, archery, singing, and ice skating. I'm really bad at swimming, and I'm really scared of spiders. I like...being outside, and shoes, and my big brother." she finished, sighing with relief as she looked at the teacher, who nodded encouragingly.

"Who's your brother?" a voice came from the back. Lili scowled momentarily.

"Um, he's not really my brother...My second cousin is Vash Zwingli, from class 2." Lots of people in the class grinned at each other and said 'oh, yeah, Vash...'

"Are you single?" came another back-of-the-room question. Lili blushed.

"Um, yes...kind of..." she said, but luckily the teacher saved her from having to elaborate. Vash had given her quite a few strict dating rules that basically meant that nobody could date her without going through him first. It was actually really flattering.

"Okay, how about you, dear?" the teacher asked the other girl, who stepped forward with a dazzling smile.

"_Allons-y, ma chérie_." The blonde boy cheered before getting hit on the arm by another blonde next to him. Hmm. Big eyebrows.

"_Bonjour_, my name is Seychelles, and I am really happy to be here! I love going to the beach, eating ice cream, dancing, fish, and running. I really love British accents and French food. I suck at math, cooking, and I don't like the colour orange. I'm really good at air guitar, and I love to travel." she finished, and Lili laughed as everybody applauded. Seychelles seemed like the kind of girl that everybody likes.

"Okay, Seychelles, you are sitting between Francis and Arthur. That should suit you just fine, I'm sure. Arthur is British." Lili grinned as Seychelles immediately turned towards the boy with the fuzzy eyebrows with huge interest.

"Lili, back to your seat, please. You're sitting between.." the teacher checked the seating plan. "Matthew and Roderich. Matthew's not here today, but you'll meet him soon, I'm sure."

"Who's Matthew?" a voice from the back asked, but the speaker was violently elbowed. Lili sat back down on the right of the boy she'd been sitting next to in the beginning.

"Hello." he said shortly, and she said hello back. Then silence. Lili noted that his clothes were perfectly ironed. He seemed a little snobby.

XxXxXxXx

Elisabeta sighed. The first day of school. Whoopee. She brushed her long brown hair carefully, smiling at her reflection before grabbing an apple and walking out the door. She double-checked that she had everything she would need to put in her locker -camera, extra paper, piggy bank, extra batteries, mirror, hair brush, change of clothes, and pictures of her friends- and began walking down the cobblestone path towards her school. She waved at her neighbour, and petted their cat, basking in the warm morning sunlight.

She stuffed her earphones in her ears, and played _Miss independent, _thinking about all the exciting stuff that could happen this year. Maybe Arthur and Francis would _finally _let her film one of their drunk make-out sessions. Maybe Matthew would, at long last, just _tell _Alfred that he's in love with him. But most importantly...maybe this year, she would _finally _decide between her best friend and her prince charming. Hopefully...

"Hey! HUNGARY! BABE!" Elisabeta beamed and turned around, only to be bear-hugged by Gilbert.

"Hey! What's up?" she asked, pushing him away in a rather violent, but still friendly manner. He grinned at her.

"Not much...Well, okay, there's a lot, but it's all awesome so...it kind of blends into one big AWESOME pile of AWESOMENESS. What about yourself?" he asked, crossing his arms behind his head and smirking at her. Hungary considered what to say: 'I spent my summer stalking several friends, filming them and their lovers do...stuff.' How about, no. So instead she just shrugged and smiled.

"Not too much. My muscles got bigger this summer!" she told him seriously, gesturing at her chest, knowing that this was the kind of thing that made Gilbert feel awkward. She was right: he coughed and shuffled around a bit, his normally pale skin going a bit pink, and his reddish eyes shifted.

"Oh...um, okay, cool..."

"How's Gilbird?" Hungary asked as they took the shortcut through the park.

"Oh, yeah, he's awesome. He and Pierre had a sweet playdate last weekend."

"Oh, that's cool. So, did your penis grow, yet?"

"UH...you know...that's not how-"

"Lady Elisabeta! Good morning." Hungary looked around to find Roderich on her left, his hands in the pockets of his pristine uniform blazer, looking, as usual, like a model for Abercrombie and Fitch. With a lot more class.

"Good morning, Roderich! It's nice to see you again. How was your summer?" Ellie knew she was stammering a bit, but it was hard not to when faced with Roderich in the sunlight. It was a bit blinding.

"I had a rather enjoyable summer, thank you. I mostly spent time on the boat, but I did take a trip to Venice early in August."

"Gosh, that sounds...super!" Ellie gushed as Gilbert cleared his throat loudly.

"Ells, d'you wanna go to a movie with me today?" he asked, much louder than necessary. Ellie turned to look at him, flattered, but _not _inclined to accept, because that would make talking to Roderich a little awkward.

"Well, that's very nice of you, but-"

"Lady Elisabeta, would you accept my offer to accompany me to a restaurant this evening? Five star, I promise. No less, for a lady like yourself." Roderich asked, taking her hand.

"Um, thanks, but-"

"Ells, babe, we can see any movie you want! I'll even pay for you!"

"Um-"

"We could even catch a broadway play afterwards..."

"No! No, no no!" Elisabeta exclaimed, wheeling to face the both of them. They looked a little surprised, and Ellie looked at the ground, composing herself quickly before continuing. "Guys, I really, really wish that I _could_, but I _can't_."

"Why?" Gilbert asked suspiciously (he knew better than anybody that Ellie never did anything scheduled).

"Because...Because my dad said that I am absolutely _not _allowed to date anybody until I leave highschool! Because...if I do, he'll make me cut my hair!"

"NO!"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, crossing her fingers behind her back.

"In fact...if he ever finds out that I went on a date with a boy, he'll shave it all off himself!"

"NO!"

"That bastard!" Ellie nodded solemnly.

"So, as much as I would _love _to go with both of you...I can't. I'm sure you understand why."

"Of course we bloody well do! What a horrible ultimatum!" Roderich exclaimed vehemently. Ellie nodded sadly.

"So...if you _could _say yes, who would you go with?" Gilbert asked after a brief silence.

"Are you serious?" Elisabeta scowled.

"Well, I'm just curious!"

"Jeeeez!"

Apparently, Elisabeta's huge decision would _not _happen this year after all.

XxXxXxXxXx

"Loviiiiii!" Feliciano's whining voice came from down the stairs.

"I know, I know! Geez, I'm coming, damnit!" Lovino Vargas grumbled as he pulled his uniform sweater over his head, grabbed his bag, and tromped down the stairs. His younger brother was sitting on the chair in the hall, swinging his legs and humming. "Hurry up, we're going." Lovino said shortly, walking out the door. Feli followed him, calling a farewell to their grandfather upstairs.

"Ve...Do you think we'll be in the same class this year, big bro?" Feli asked cheerfully as he skipped along next to Lovino.

"I don't know. Maybe." Lovi replied shortly. It wasn't that he didn't _like _his little brother. It was just annoying that Feli was better than Lovi in so many subjects that he got to skip a grade. Damn him. It wasn't like Lovi _sucked _at everything. Feli's just better, that's all.

"Ve...Oh! Big bro! Guess what? Guess what, guess what?" Feli exclaimed suddenly, making Lovino jump as they stepped onto the bus.

"What is it?" he asked in a bored tone. Most of Feli's 'Guess what?'s were about that stupid German bastard. The potato-freak. Not only were they mostly about the one person that Lovino actually despised, but they weren't even interesting.

"Well, I was talking to Ludwig the other day on the phone-"

"Typical."

"Hey! Anyways, I was talking to him, and he said that his brother, Gilbert, told him that his old friend was coming to school this year! Guess who it is!" Lovino sighed.

"Who?" he asked, deadpan. Feli was bouncing on his toes in his excitement, jostling the woman behind him, who gave him a filthy look.

"It's _Antoniooo!_" Lovino's heart definitely stopped for a moment. Forcing himself to keep control, he asked if Feli was _sure _it was the same Antonio.

"Well, of course I'm sure! Ludwig said that he's Gilbert's good friend, and that he loves tomatoes, and sunshine, and laughing, and...tomatoes! That _has _to be the same Antonio! Isn't it exciting? Our old babysitter! He could be in the same class as us, too!"

"Only if he's bad at school.." Lovino muttered, knowing very well that that was the case. Antonio Fernandez Carriedo was _not _the sharpest thumbtack in the board. He probably had failed a couple classes in school, seeing as he spent most of his time outside having fun, instead of working.

"It's going to be so much fun! We'll all be together again! Ve...I missed Antonio so much! He was always so nice to me!" _Way to rub it in..._Lovino thought bitterly, looking out the window at the sunny day.

Antonio Carriedo had haunted his childhood for several years, and he was _not _looking forward to seeing that smiling face again. Antonio had watched Feliciano and himself after school, when their grandfather was busy drinking and partying his wrinkles away. Although he was only a year older than them, Antonio had needed the money, so he was overjoyed to get paid simply to hang out with friends.

But Antonio, the boy Lovino had admired and appreciated so much, had always avoided him. He always played with Feli, always talked to Feli, and would always 'have to go home' before helping Lovino with his homework, or playing or talking to Lovino. So he had gradually accepted that he would always be number 2 to Feliciano in life. Then Antonio had moved away, taking all of Lovino's insecurity and feelings of worthlessness with him. Until now.

They hopped off the bus, Feliciano jabbering away about something or another Ludwig did the other day, and Lovino ignoring him, thinking about the Spanish asshole who had trodden on his childhood happiness. They walked through the school gates, and passed by a small group of boys who were laughing and hugging. Suddenly, Feliciano grabbed Lovino by the arm, stopping him.

"What the hell?" Lovi grumbled as he turned around.

"Antonio! Ve...It's really you!" Feli exclaimed, tugging on the sleeve of one of the laughing boys. He turned around, surprised, and then saw Feli and began to laugh.

Lovino could only stare.

How could Fate be so damn cruel! Here he was, the horrible Spanish bastard who had always considered him second to his brother...Lovino, of course, would hate him forever! But _how _in the _world _was he supposed to hate somebody who looked like a fucking sex god! Antonio was so different...it's amazing how four years can make somebody so much taller, more muscular, and more handsome... Lovino's scowl was losing its panache as he took in the Spaniard's healthy tan skin, tousled chestnut hair, radiant smile, and hypnotic green eyes.

Damnit.

"...great to see you, Feli! Awww! You've grown so big, and...oh wow." Lovino's eyes flicked up from the ground (he been forcing himself to look away) to meet Antonio's. Antonio was staring at him, seeming to be in shock. _Jeez, I didn't get that ugly, __did I? _Lovino scowled, and Antonio seemed to get ahold of himself as a huge smile spread across his face.

"Lovino! You're so much bigger! I remember when you were this big-" he put his hands about a foot apart, and Lovi scoffed. "-and your face looked just like a tomato! So cute!" he sighed, and Lovino's scowl deepened.

"It did not, you stupid bastard." Lovino snapped. Antonio's face fell for a second before the dazzling smile was back.

"What class are you two in?" he asked cheerfully. Lovino didn't want to talk any more, so Feli answered boisterously.

"Ve...I skipped a grade, so I'm in class 2, with Lovi! What class are you in?" Antonio grinned.

"Well...I missed a year of school, working, so...I'm in class 2 as well!" Feliciano cheered as Lovino's stomach dropped.

"How super. If you'll excuse me, I've got things to do...Like go and stand over there..." Lovino said shortly before striding away, clenching his fists and swearing under his breath. Antonio and Feli were left to watch him storm away.

"So...he seems cheerful..." Antonio said with a grin. Feliciano laughed.

"Ve...he's always like that. It just got a whole lot worse since you turned up!" Antonio blinked.

"Oh...okay...interesting..."

**Translations:**

_Bonjour_, _ma chérie_ **: Hello, my dear  
><strong>_Tu te souviens de moi, n'est-ce pas, ma belle Seychelles_ :** You remember me, don't you, my beautiful Seychelles_  
><em>**_...je me souviens de toi_!:** I remember you!  
><strong>_la mème école que moi_?** : the same school as me?  
><strong>_Bien sûr, ma chère. Tu es encore plus belle que tu étais la dernière fois que nous avons étreint_ .** : Of course, my dear. You are even more beautiful than you were the last time we embraced.  
><strong>_Je suis tellement heureuse de te voir! S'il te plaît, peux-tu me dire à propos de l'école?_ : **I'm so happy to see you! Please, can you tell me about the school?  
><strong>_Nous sommes arrivés, ma belle Seychelles_ .** : We're here, my beautiful Seychelles.  
><strong>_Est-ce que nous sommes dans la mème classe?_** : Are we in the same class?  
><strong>_Je ne sais pas, ma petite fleure. Quelle numéro de classe as-tu?_** :I don't know, my little flower. What class number do you have?  
><em>Je pense que j'ai numéro 1<em>." she said, trying to visualise the number on the letter she'd received two weeks ago. Francis beamed at her.**  
>"<em>Magnifique! Je suis dans la première classe aussi! <strong>:<strong>_**Great! I'm in the first class too!**  
>"<em>Je pense que nous allons courir.<em>" **I think that we'll run.**  
><em>Pourquoi?<em>" **Why?**  
>"<em>Parce que..<em>._Nous sommes vignt minutes en retard!_" **Because...We're twenty minutes late!**  
>"<em>Mierde! Um, où est la classe<em>?" **Shit! Um, where's the class?**  
>"<em>Içi, cherie. Je suis très heureuse que nous sommes ensemble encore<em>. **Here, darling. I'm really happy that we're together again.  
><strong>_Allons-y, ma chérie_** . Let's go, my darling.**

* * *

><p>Okay, that's the first chapter! I wanted to do a bit with everybody's morning first, so...they're all up there! The reason that Feliks and Toris weren't in this chapter is because Feliks hasn't come to the school yet. I'll go into more detail about them when he comes!<p>

Hope you liked it, and I'll update soon, because I've already got the next chapter or so written.


	2. AMOUR

**LOVE, Absolutely**

Chapter 2: **AMOUR**

Seychelles was in dilemma-land. On one side of her, Francis sat, blowing her kisses and winking, and being all romantic and French. She glanced at his wavy, gorgeous blonde hair, his long legs, his beautiful eyes...and sighed. Perfect. However...on her left was Arthur. The hottest Brit ever, with the _sexiest _British accent, the cutest eyebrows, the funniest personality, adorable, ruffled blonde hair, and a frankly alluring dominant aura. Well...dominant might not be the right word...

"Please take out a fresh piece of paper, you're going to take notes." the teacher piped up. Seychelles grabbed a piece of paper from her blue binder and placed it on the desk, accidentally bumping elbows with Arthur.

"Sorry.." she murmured with a smile. He scowled at her.

"Okay, _this _is my desk, and _that _is yours. Please don't get them mixed up." he said firmly. Seychelles drew back, sensing that _this _guy, hot as he was, was clearly not very...French. "Oh, okay, sorry." she said, stung. He immediately backtracked. "Er, that is to say...It's okay to touch me...um, not like that, but it's just, there are rules, and public touching laws and stuff, so...um...be more careful in future, please." he finished shortly, beginning to furiously copy down the notes the teacher put on the overhead. Seychelles grinned at the Brit, whose ears were burning red. Suddenly, Francis' arm slid around her waist, and she turned to look at him.

"Ignore him, _ma cherie_. He is too much of a punk to appreciate your touch. _S'il te plait_, touch me as much as you want..." Seychelles blushed, knowing _exactly _what he meant.

"Um, Francis.."

"You pervert, stop touching her! I'm sure she doesn't want you to-" Arthur put in, furiously removing Francis' hand from her waist.

"What would you know about it, you little punk?" France retorted, slapping Arthurs hand away.

"How dare-" Arthur slapped back.

Slap.

Slap. Slap. Slap. Slap. Slappy-slappy-slap.

Seychelles sighed and began to copy her notes as a sissy-fight began over her head.

Well, at least she met some interesting boys.

Huzzah.

XxXxXxXx

Lili looked up as her desk shook again. Seychelles was clearly the object of a love triangle already. How fun! And yet... Lili observed the French guy and the British guy bickering before her eyes slid to the girl slumped between them. She was obviously getting a bit tired of their fighting. Lili tore a piece off her paper, and wrote a note to the girl in front of her, under Roderich's disapproving gaze.

She folded it up, and tapped on Seychelles' chair with her foot. She turned around, a quizzical look in her eyes. Lili smiled and subtly gave her the note. Seychelles beamed at her and turned around again as the teacher looked their way. Lili began doodling shoes on her notes, wondering how long it was until break time.

Seychelles opened the note Lili had given her under her desk. It was so nice to already have a friend! She giggled to herself as she read the note. _Love triangle already? Lucky, but I bet it gets tiring. _Underneath the message was a cute little doodle of Francis and Arthur on either side of a sighing Seychelles. Seychelles grinned and immediately began to scribble a response. Francis and Arthur had gotten tired of slapping each other's hands, and had begun a kick-under-the-table war. Seychelles tucked her feet around the legs of the table to keep them safe, and subtly moved her hand behind her chair, clutching the note.

Lili saw Seychelles move her hand behind her chair, and took the paper from it, smiling as she read it. _Absolutely. But it makes me want to laugh! Do you ever the feeling that you want to suddenly laugh in the middle of class, but are scared that everybody will stare at you? I feel like that all the time...especially when these two keep insulting each other. Do you want to be friends with me? I just moved here, this summer Also, please tell me if you can't understand me. C'est parce que I speak...er...it's complicated, but the language of my country is a mix of English et Francais, so...there are words in English that I don't know except en Francais. I tried to get a French-English dictionary, but I...was to lazy to carry it around. Sorry._

_-Seychelles. _

Lili smiled. It was nice to have a friend already! She quietly tore a new piece of paper and replied quickly, then passed it back to Seychelles, who smiled at her before unfolding it under her desk.

_Of course I'd like to be friends with you! And I have that feeling all the time! I remember I once laughed out loud at a bus stop, and I didn't have any reason except that I was thinking of something! It was awful, because everybody stared, and I didn't have a book or an Ipod or a friend to pretend with...ugh it sucked. And don't worry, I can understand you just fine. I think it's pretty the way you talk and write, and it sounds cool. Plus, just think! It's perfect, considering you're TOTALLY crushing on a Brit and a French guy. It's like fate!_

Seychelles laughed when she read the note. Everybody stared. Lili began coughing to save her, and Seychelles pretended to sneeze. The teacher rolled her eyes and continued to explain about foreign borders. Soon enough, Lili got a reply to her note. _That story was TOTALLY HILARIOUS! And merci for saving me...that was embarrassing...You're totally right, too! I can tell I'm talking to a total romantic, like me! Do you have anybody you like?_

Lili bit her lip: to tell her, or not...? The teacher suddenly spoke loudly.

"Okay, everybody. There's only ten more minutes left in class, so you can get started on your homework, or introduce yourselves to Seychelles and Lili. Seychelles turned around in her seat and grinned at Lili.

"_So, _do you have anybody you like?" she asked with a big smile. Lili blushed and fought very hard to say no.

"No...No...No I do not have anybody I like..." she said, looking out the window. Seychelles laughed.

"So that's a _no?_" Lili nodded furiously, and Seychelles grinned.

"Has anybody ever told you how _adorable _you are?" she asked, and Lili blushed again.

"N-no...nobody has _ever _done that." An outright lie, of course. Lili could think of one person who told her that every week. Seychelles hummed a little bit before shooting Lili a sly glance.

"Y'know..._je pense que tu aimes quelqu'un..." _she smiled, and Lili bit her lip.

"Um...okay, well..._Ich denke dass Sie auch wie jemand. Die zwei Jungen neben Ihnen, richtig?_" Seychelles blinked at her and Lili laughed. Suddenly, Roderich spoke up from Lili's right.

_"Oh, wirklich? Ich hätte nie geschätzt." _Lili laughed again and asked him if he spoke German, to which he replied 'Yes, but I'd have thought that was obvious.'

"Hello? What were you guys saying?" Seychelles asked, pouting. Lili smiled.

"I said, 'I think that you also like someone. Two boys beside you, right?' "

"Not so loud!" Seychelles hissed as Francis and Arthur looked around vaguely, and Roderich coughed to cover a chuckle. "Okay, okay." Lili flapped her hand, continuing.

"So then _Roderich _said, 'Oh really, I would never have guessed!'" Seychelles laughed, but was interrupted when France smacked her butt. She turned around, cheeks flaming, and told him off.

"_Francis! Tu es vraiment un pervers total! Que veules-tu?" _she demanded the Frenchman, who was smirking at her.

"_Ma belle Seychelles, j'ai seulement voulu ton attention! Est-ce que je peux te serrer dans mes bras?" _Seychelles blinked at him.

"_Pourquoi?" _Francis pretended to be mortally wounded.

"_Quelle quéstion terrible, ma chérie! Seulement parce que je t'aime!" _Seychelles turned bright red, and muttered a tiny 'okay..' Francis wrapped his long arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Lili watched with amusement as Francis winked at Arthur over Seychelles' head. Arthur scowled and stood up, walking around the desks to stand in front of them.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your warm and heartfelt reunion," he began tersely, his ears pink when Seychelles looked up at him. "But such lewd demonstrations of affection are prohibited inside classrooms. As the school prefect, I must ask you to stop."

"Awww, the little punk is jealous!" Francis teased, pulling Seychelles closer to him. He kept eye contact with Arthur as his hand travelled further down her back, until he grabbed her butt.

XxXxXxXx

Francis' hand was on her ass. Squeezing it. Hot French guy or not, that was _not allowed. _Seychelles pushed herself off of him (something she'd been trying to do for the last two minutes) and slapped him hard across the face.

The room suddenly fell silent, as they tend to do when anything dramatic happens. She heard Lili gasp behind her, and saw Arthur grin, but all Seychelles was looking at was France's shocked, slightly reddened face.

"Francis, please don't do that. I don't like to be touched like that. I am _not _some...some...some girl who allows guys she hasn't seen in years to grab her ass whenever they feel like it! I'm not a slapper! _Ne touchez pas_." she ordered, then turned back to face Lili, staring at the floor. Arthur flicked Francis on the nose before smugly returning to his seat. Francis spent the rest of class rubbing his cheek and looking at Seychelle with some kind of...'_what a woman' _expression on his face.

The bell rang for break.

Seychelles stood up, grabbed her bag, took Lili by the hand, waved goodbye to Arthur and Francis, and walked out.

"Let's go find our lockers!" she said cheerfully, skipping down the hall. They had checked their locker numbers before, and knew that their lockers were right next to each other. They found them quickly enough, right next to a water fountain. Lili opened up locker number 23 and Seychelles number 22.

"Seychelles, behind you." Lili murmured. Seychelles turned around subtly and found Arthur passing by, talking to Alfred, the big, tall American.

"Isn't he cute?" Seychelles sighed, sticking pictures of sunsets and fish to her locker with magnets. Lili nodded.

"Behind you...again..." she hissed about four minutes later. Seychelles didn't need to look, because two long arms accompanied by French cologne and Francis wrapped around her shoulders.

"Seychelles, _ma belle, _I'm so sorry I offended you! Please allow me to make it up to you." he asked softly. Lili hummed to herself as she filled her locker with pictures of herself, her great-aunt and uncle, and second cousin during the summer vacation.

"Okay, Francis. I'm sorry I hit you. I was surprised." Seychelles said, hugging Francis before he left to talk to some friends.

"Isn't he cute?" Seychelles sighed, continuing with her locker decoration.

"I know, right! But watch out, he's a perv." a loud, cheery voice suddenly interrupted, accompanied by a very curvy, pretty girl with beautiful long brown hair. She leaned against the locker next to Lili's and grinned at the two girls.

"Hi, you guys. I'm Elisabeta, but you can call me Hungary, it's my nickname. Or...well, everybody calls me that because 'my name is too long'." the girl made a face, and Lilli and Seychelles giggled.

"So, I caught you making eyes at...er...England and France! Love triangle, I bet!" Hungary said quickly, twirling her hair around a finger as she raised her eyebrows at Seychelles, who looked a little embarrassed.

"It was that obvious?" she asked, and Hungary laughed.

"Of course! But relax, I'm the only one that noticed. Oh, and if there's ever anything you girls need to know about the guys in this school, I'm the girl to ask, okay? I know _everything._" she said in a conspiratorial voice.

"Oh, that's fabulous! How awesome! How do you know so much?" Seychelles asked. Hungary put her hands behind her back and smiled.

"Well, I've lived here for my whole life, and during my younger years I was a total tomboy. So I heard _everything _the guys would talk about, like what girls they like, what they do at sleepovers..."

"What _do _boys do at sleepovers?" Lili asked, intrigued. Hungary tapped her nose and smiled, looking behind Lili and Seychelles.

"Later. Somebody's boy toy is coming this way." she whispered before flouncing away down the hall. Seychelles immediately turned around, probably expecting Francis, who seemed to follow her around everywhere. But it wasn't.

"Lili, is this your cousin?" Lili turned around, too, excitement filling her. Vash was standing behind her, looking a little awkward (probably because of Seychelles), but mostly happy.

"Big brother! How was your first class?" Lili asked, blushing a little bit because of his intense gaze. She wanted to hug him...she wanted to hug him... She unconsciously raised her arms slightly as he replied that he'd had a reasonable morning, considering... He drifted off, watching her. She didn't notice he had stopped talking until he awkwardly moved towards her and hugged her stiffly. Lili barely had time to gasp, blush, and inhale his scent before he backed away and coughed stiffly.

"Um...um...thank you!" Lili blurted before falling silent again, staring at her shoes.

"So...is this a new friend?" Vash began again. Seychelles, catching on that Lili was...a little shy around her 'brother', introduced herself.

"I'm Seychelles. _C'est un plaisir_ to meet you, Switzerland...or Vash..."

"It's nice to meet you, too." Switzerland responded, and Lili finally spoke up again.

"Um...who do you sit with, in your class? A...a girl?" she asked, cursing herself for being so totally blunt. Lili twisted her hands behind her back as Vash smiled slightly.

"Yes...I sit next to Antonio and Katyusha..." he said thoughtfully.

"That's nice..." Liechtenstein said shyly as Seychelles re-tied one of her ribbons, trying not to ruin the conversation. She was very aware of moods, and was good at reading people's responses to things. She knew not to interrupt.

"Who are you sitting next to?" Vash asked. Liechtenstein smiled.

"Um, well, Matthew..., but he wasn't there. And...Roderich." Vash's face froze, and then a small frown emerged.

"Roderich? Okay..." he placed his hands on Lili's shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. She looked back, surprised.

"Please be careful around him. He is...well, just.." Vash seemed to be fighting to explain exactly what was wrong with Austria. "Well...okay, I don't like him. But that doesn't mean he's awful, but, just...please don't hang around with him a lot, okay?" Lili nodded seriously, not doubting a word Vash said.

The bell rang for next class, and Vash hugged Lili awkwardly before walking stiffly down the hall. Seychelles leaned over to Lili, giving her a conspiratorial smile.

"Soooo...your 'brother' seems nice...you two seem to get along really well...He's got a certain, um, how do you say it...a certain _je ne sais quoi_..." Lili turned to her, blushing but frowning.

"You are _not _allowed to have a crush on my Big brother." she said firmly, and Seychelles laughed.

"Oh Lili, relax. I was only kidding. I promise I'll never have a crush on Vash, but I will admit, he's got gorgeous eyes..." The pair giggled as they headed to their next class, the bell echoing in the noisy hall.

"Ew, it's math!" Seychelles groaned when they entered the class and saw the posters of 'PI before Pie' on the walls.

"It's okay, I can help you if you like." Lili offered, and Seychelles gave her a grateful smile. There was another seating plan for this class. The students in the class were all the same, of course, since class 1 had all its classes together, but there was a different room and a different teacher. Lili ended up sitting next to an empty desk, yet again, and Arthur. Seychelles was sitting behind her, between Kiku and Eduard. "Please say 'here' when I call your name..." the teacher announced, taking out a clipboard.

"Alfred?

"Alfred is IN THE HOUSE! WOO!"

"...Right. Arthur?"

"Present." Lili zoned out slightly, trying to remember the smell of Vash's clean sweater and his shampoo, which smelled like...leaves and apples. The label 'Smell Pervert' suddenly floated into her brain, ruining her reverie just in time to hear her name called.

"Lili?"

"Here!"

"Natalia?" "...Here..."

The class began with a review of everything they'd learned the previous year. Liechtenstein remembered it all, mostly because Vash had taught it to her that summer. She'd missed the last few weeks of school the last year due to...unfavourable circumstances, so he'd taught her the math she'd missed. Her old school had been using the semester system, so she'd missed almost all her math classes. About ten minutes into the time given to start their homework, a pencil tapped Lili on the shoulder.

"Need help?" she asked Seychelles, who nodded apologetically.

"What don't you understand?" Lili asked, turning around in her chair to have a look at her friend's homework sheet, which was...blank.

"Um...all of it..." Seychelles said sheepishly. Lili smiled.

"Okay, well...number one is asking first for the common factors of 16 and 64. Do you know them?"

"Er..."

"Okay, well, factors are things that you can divide a number by. 16 can be divided by 1, leaving 16, 2, leaving 8, and 4, leaving 4. So the factors of 16 are 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. 64 can be divided by 1, leaving 64, by 2, leaving 32, by 4, leaving 16, and by 8, leaving 8. So the factors of 64 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 64. Do you understand?" she asked. Seychelles nodded slowly.

"Okay...so what are the common factors? Just circle all the ones that are the same for each number." Seychelles circled 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 in pink pen.

"Well, that's right!" Lili exclaimed, and Seychelles beamed proudly.

"Now you just have to do that with 4012 and 220." Lili said cheerfully, and Seychelles groaned. After a while, Lili had somehow got her friend going, and was starting on her own sheet.

"Hey..." Lili looked up in surprise to see Arthur giving her a sideways look. "...Is Seychelles having trouble with math?"

No duh.

Lili smiled at him shyly. "Um, a little bit." Suddenly, a wonderful, devious thought popped into her head. She grinned broadly at the Brit. "Actually, I think that what she _really _needs is a tutor...somebody who would be willing to spend a little extra time with her, just to...help her understand a bit better. I mean, I'd do it myself, but I live so far away, and I don't think I'm good enough to teach her..." Lili trailed off, finishing a calculation on her sheet.

She didn't need to be psychic to know what Arthur was thinking: she'd checked his page, and knew that he was already done the homework. He was good at math...Seychelles needed a tutor. Lili smirked to herself as Arthur leaned his chair back and struck up an offer with Seychelles, who, of course, agreed joyfully. Lili subtly turned to look at her friend, and was rewarded by a mouthed 'MERCI!" and a thumbs-up.

XxXxXxXx

Lovino was, in a word, pissed. Antonio was at his school. In his classes. The first class of the day, English, hadn't been so bad, because Lovino sat at the back of the classroom with Toris and Mathias, and Antonio sat at the front, next to Vash and Katyusha. But the second class of the day was Lovi's elective, Spanish (NOT FOR THE REASON YOU THINK, DAMNIT!), and _that _was a living hell.

Spanish class was shared between the people who had chosen to take it in class 1 and class 2. Lovino had comfortably sat down at his desk next to Alfred and Bella, ready for a nice Antonio-free hour and a half. But alas, it was not meant to be. A minute before the bell rang to start class, Antonio walked in the door.

The teacher pointed him towards his desk...right in front of Lovino. Lovi glued his eyes to the floor as Antonio walked towards him, drew back his chair, and sat down. During the teacher's introduction and overview of the year, Lovino glared at the back of the Spaniard's head, mentally calling him every dirty word he knew, in both Italian and English. And a bit of French.

"OK, _todos trabaja con la persona detrás de usted_. Introduce yourselves, and get to know each other. You'll be partners in the project we're starting next class." Oh shit. She did _not _just say that. Lovino was scowling so much it hurt. Antonio spun his chair around and beamed at Lovino.

"Isn't this great, Lovi? We already know each other!"

"Yeah, it's fucking brilliant." Lovino snapped, glaring at his desk. Antonio laughed lightly.

"You sure swear a lot more than you did when you were younger."

"Shut up." Antonio sighed and watched as Lovino glared at the floor, then the ceiling, then the opposite wall, and finally at him.

"So...you've evidentially changed during the past four years, so we'd better get to know each other all over again." Spain said, ever-cheerful. Lovino made a non-committal grunt.

"Okay. So, your name is still Lovino Vargas...what's your favourite thing to do after school?" Antonio asked, pretending to hold a microphone under Lovino's chin. The Italian had to fight down an immature reaction of taking the mic and saying 'Well, Barb, it turns out that...' He cleared his throat and muttered something indistinguishable. Antonio leaned forward.

"What's that?" Another mutter. Antonio leaned a lot closer.

"What?" Lovino froze. Antonio was close enough that he could smell him. He still smelled like tomatoes, spices, and tortillas.

"Personal space, damnit!" Lovino protested, pushing the Spaniard away. "I _said, _I like to eat after school. Doesn't everybody?"

"What do you like to eat after school?" Antonio persisted.

"Um...Pizza."

"What kind of pizza?"

"It changes every time."

"What's your favourite kind of pizza to eat after school?"

"WHY ARE YOU SO INTERESTED, DAMNIT?" Lovino demanded, and Antonio laughed.

"You're just the same, you know. So cute."

"Not as cute as Feliciano, I bet." Lovino muttered under his breath. Seizing the chance to turn the tables on Antonio, Lovi asked the first question that came into his mind.

"What's your favourite Disney princess?" Antonio stared at him. As did Bella, who had heard.

Lovino turned bright red and stared at his shoes. Why the _fuck _did he say that! He hadn't watched a Disney movie in four years, damnit! Not since...not since Antonio had stopped coming. Antonio laughed.

"Um, interesting question, Lovi..."

"Just answer it, stupid bastard..."

"Okay then. My favourite Disney princess _used _to be Belle, but lately I started to really like Anastasia."

"Anastasia's a 20th Century Fox movie, dummy." Lovino couldn't help it; he smirked a little. Antonio could be pretty...you know.

"Oh, really?" he asked in surprise before his face fell. "That sucks. Well then, I guess that leaves Meg from Hercules. That's Disney, right?" Lovi actually didn't know.

"Um...sure." Lovino crossed his arms over his chest and looked out the window. Antonio sighed.

"You still hate me, don't you?" Lovino was shocked; he never knew that Antonio had found out.

"Er..." Lovi looked at the Spanish boy who was leaning on his desk. He actually looked...sad. Lovino's snappy remark suddenly got lost on its way up. "Um...well, not that much." he admitted reluctantly, and Antonio immediately cheered up.

Some people's minds just seem to work on one level.

"Siiii! Todos, back to your seats please!" The teacher sang from the front of the room. Antonio winked at Lovino, then turned around, leaving the latter in a frozen state of shock.

"Ooh, I wish I had your partner, Lovi, honey. I've got Ivan...Brr. He gives me the creeps!" Bella whispered to him. Lovino shook his head. "I'd rather have Ivan...Antonio's...er..."

"Smexy? Yum." Bella said, giving him a naughty smile. Lovino shook his head, but didn't say any more.

"Okay, todos! Now, one group at a time, please come up to the front and present your partners!"

"Oh shit." Romano muttered; he'd barely learned anything about Antonio worth mentioning...

"How about we do this alphabetically...I believe that Antonio and his partner are up first! _Ayayayayayyyy!_" All the students stared at the teacher, who was shaking maracas energetically. "Erm...okay, just come up." she said sheepishly.

Lovino sighed as he followed Antonio up to the front of the class, feeling very un-toned and short compared to him.

"This is Lovino Vargas. He's sixteen years old, and he lives with his brother Feliciano and his grandfather. He loves to eat tomatoes and pasta. Lovi sucks at housework, and at expressing his feelings. He likes to spend time outside in the sunshine, and to eat candy apples at amusement parks. When he was younger, his head looked like a tomato, and it still does if he blus-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, BASTARD!" Lovino snarled, elbowing Antonio hard in the ribs. He took a deep breath, shoved his hands into his pockets, and scowled.

"_This _idiot is Antonio. He's seventeen, and he sucks at school. He's always smiling, which is just weird. If you're in a bad mood, he's the worst person to talk to, because he'll cheer you up. He wouldn't be able to sense a bad mood if it gave him a lap dance. He adores tomatoes, and would probably not eat anything else if he had enough of them. Also, he didn't know that Anastasia's not a Disney movie." Lovino finished with a disapproving glance at the boy he was describing. Antonio had an unreadable expression on his face. For some reason, Lovino couldn't meet his eyes.

"Thank you, chicos!" The teacher cheered and clapped while they walked back to their seats. The rest of the class, Lovino zoned out, thinking about...Antonio. He was out of his seat and out the door the moment the bell rang.

XxXxxXx

_ C'est parce que_ **It's because  
><strong>..._je pense que tu aimes quelqu'un..._** ...I think you like (love) someone... **(Aimer can mean like **or** love, Ex: J'aime le crayon, Je t'aimes - I like the pencil, I love you)  
><em>Tu es vraiment un pervers total! Que veules-tu?<em>** You really are a total pervert! What do you want?  
><strong>_Ma belle Seychelles, j'ai seulement voulu ton attention! Est-ce que je peux te serrer dans mes bras?" _**My beautiful Seychelles, I only wanted your attention! Can I hold you in my arms?**_  
><em> "_Pourquoi?" _**Why?**_  
><em> "_Quelle quéstion terrible, ma chérie! Seulement parce que je t'aime!_** What a terrible question, my dear! Only because I love you!  
><strong>_Ne touchez pas_** . Don't touch.  
><strong>_todos trabaja con la persona detrás de usted_** Everybody work with the person behind you.**

* * *

><p>Hope you guys liked the chapter! Oh, and if there's ever anything wrong with my translations, please tell me! I am in French Immersion, so hopefully that'll mostly be okay, but German and everything else I might use could be wrong, because I'm just using online translators for them. I'm in Spanish class, but I suck, so that could be wrong too. I felt so embarassed writing the math scene, because I did a unit on factoring in October, but I had to check Yahoo answers to make sure about the calculations! Argh I totally suck...<p>

anyways, hope this is okay! Please give me any kind of advice you might have!


	3. AMORE

**LOVE, Absolutely**

Chapter 3: **AMORE**

The bell rang, announcing that gym was next. Arthur, his ears bright red, raced out of the classroom the moment the door opened, leaving Lili and Seychelles to hug each other and laugh about how great things were going.

"So, were we supposed to bring our own gymstrip?" Seychelles asked nervously as they followed the rest of their class towards the gymnasium. Lily shook her head.

"No...I asked my Big brother about it, and he said that they provide them the first day, and then you take it home and keep it. He also told me that if you forget it, you have to climb the rope in under two minutes -in your skirt! ...But I think that was a joke. ...Maybe." Seychelles laughed as they entered the gym.

There were two tables right by the doors, one with a sign saying BOYS, another with a sign saying GIRLS. They both grabbed a pair of red gym shorts and a white t-shirt, and headed for the girls' changeroom. They found the other girls from class 2 already inside. Not that there were many: in total, there were only seven girls. Hungary looked up and cheered.

"Hey, you guys! I am _so _glad you two came to this school...there were only five of us before!" Lili sighed wistfully as Hungary pulled off her uniform's collared shirt, revealing bouncing, curvy breasts underneath, barely contained in her black lace bra. And they were big.

Damnit.

"Let's introduce ourselves, ladies!" A curvy, tall blonde girl with wavy hair and green eyes waved from over in a corner.

"I'm Bella, it's great to officially meet you two!"

"Natalia..." Said a pretty girl with a rather unimpressed expression.

Lili admired her lovely, straight brown-grey hair before noticing that _she, too, _had a very well-developed chest. Belgium's, too, could be bigger than Hungary's. Certainly her hips were.

"I'm Mei-mei. It's a pleasure to meet you." A delicate Asian girl introduced herself as she pulled a t-shirt over her head. Lili sighed again: another curvy figure.

"I'm Katyusha, Natalia's sister. It's so nice to meet you!" a kind-sounding voice called from near the mirrors.

Lili gaped.

The biggest, bounciest, roundest watermelons she'd ever seen on a human were right in front of her, attached to a friendly-looking girl with short-cropped hair. As Katyusha walked over to where her running shoes were, Lili could swear she heard a funny bouncing sound, as if somebody were banging water balloons together.

_It's not like I have a...an obsession or anything...I just...wish I could be pretty and curvy and boobalicious, too! _she inwardly cried, sulking in depression in a corner of her psyche.

Lili introduced herself after Seychelles, and turned away to take off her own uniform sweater and collar shirt, sighing as she looked down at her own pitifully under-developed chest. She hardly needed her pink, lacy bra.

"Oh, well..." she murmured, pulling her t-shirt over her head. She held up the gym shorts, and gasped.

"What's up?" Hungary asked loudly. Lili turned to find everybody staring at her.

"Oh...it's just...these aren't shorts! These are red panties!" she exclaimed in shock. There was a moment of silence before Hungary laughed, and Bella began chuckling into her sweater.

"We know," Hungary sighed, snapping the elastic around her own gym 'shorts' as she spoke.

"It's a sad, sad thing, but since there are more boys than girls in this school, the majority voted, and these shorts are what we wear. If you want to blame anybody in particular, you'd better blame the local perverts." Hungary advised, and Lili sighed, tugging on the shorts and lacing up her running shoes.

When everybody was changed and decent, they walked out the changeroom door to find all the boys already changed and sitting in a circle on the floor while the gym teacher explained what they would be doing.

XxXxXxXx

"Ooh, here come the ladies...Hey, is that one new?"

"Yeah...I hear you don't want to touch her butt, Francis still has a handprint on his face...but I wouldn't try anything with her. She's already crazy about Arthur and Francis. I think her name's Seychelles."

"Oh...oh, wow...hey, what about that one? The one behind Seychelles? The one who looks like a loli?"

"Oh, yeah, bay-bee! She's _fine..._" Vash looked up.

The girls had _finally _finished changing. His eyes quickly picked Lili out from the crowd. She was walking slowly behind her new friend, looking at the floor and blushing. Vash vaguely wondered what she was embarrassed about before he saw what she was wearing. Of course, it shouldn't have been a surprise: he'd been at this school long enough to know that the girls wore the smallest shorts ever invented. He'd just...failed to make the connection that _Lili _would be wearing them.

He felt himself blushing as his eyes trailed up from her skinny ankles, along her curved legs, over her rounded hips, and up towards her shoulders, proud neck and...totally moe expression. Oh my gosh.

_She's so pretty...NO! No thoughts like that about Lili! She's RELATED! It's legal...IT'S WRONG!...it's legal...WRONG!..legal..WRONG! Legal! Wrong! Legal! Wrong! Leeeeegaaaaaaal! _

Vash was torn from his mind-argument by a sharp whistle from her gym teacher.

"Two laps, you guys! Go!" Everybody got to their feet and started running. Vash was pretty fast, but preferred not to do his best on the warm-up laps, leaving Alfred the chance to dash around the gym ten metres ahead of the pack. Vash was running alongside Bella, who was gossiping away to him about something that her brother Noru did the other day.

After about a minute, Vash turned his head slightly to check that Lili was okay. Not that he doubted her physical prowess, it's just that she hated to run after...all the running she'd had to do before she came to his house. He spotted her running alongside Hungary and Seychelles. Okay, more like _behind _them. She was looking at the ground as she ran, her cropped hair bouncing along with her...nevermind.

Vash sighed, glad that she was okay, and his eyes flitted behind her to..._oh no. Oh no you di'n't! _That was most certainly Francis, _ogling _Lili's _ass! _What a total...he was going to pay. But first of all...Vash quickly told Bella that he had to tie his shoelace, and paused, waiting for Lili to catch up. Just as she ran past, he began running again, taking her arm and leading her forwards, shooting Francis a filthy look on the way.

"Big brother? What is it?" Lili asked in surprise, running faster to keep up. Vash gave her a sideways glance.

"There was a pervert behind you." he said shortly, and Lili gasped and turned to look. Francis was still running, now grinning perversely behind Seychelles.

"Oh! Wow, you mean there are _actually _people who do that?" Lili asked in surprise. Vash looked at her blankly.

"Um, yes...I thought you knew." Lili's face immediately fell, and she didn't speak again. Vash immediately felt like the biggest bad guy ever.

_Crap...why did I have to screw up so awfully?_

XxXxXxXx

_I'm sure he didn't mean it...My big brother would never say something like that on purpose..._ Lili bit her lip as she finished the last lap.

"Um, I have to...go to the bathroom." she said to the teacher, and dashed off into the girl's changeroom. Once inside, she shut herself inside a stall and sat down on the toilet seat, wiping away a few stray tears. Shuddering slightly, she closed her eyes and flashed back to the moment that formed all of her nightmares.

"_Princess, you're home from school?" _

_"Yes, Daddy." _

_"I got you a present! Will you wear it for Daddy? He wants to take your picture."_

_ "Okay." _

_... _

_"Is this what you wanted me to wear, Daddy?" _

_"Oh, wow! Yes, yes, that's perfect! Can you just...lie down on the couch like...yes! Cross your legs? Perfect! Okay, how about tugging the strap a little? Oh, princess, that's fantastic! You're still flexible, right? Show Daddy! Ooh, that's good...It's warm in here, isn't it? Do you want to take that off? Daddy doesn't mind..." _

_... _

_"Your dad does_** that**_ to you? Lili, you have to tell somebody!" _

_"It's not normal?" _

_"OF COURSE NOT!"_

_ ... _

_"Daddy, my teacher said that you're not supposed to take pictures of me when I wear your outfits." _

_"...Princess? You told your teacher! BITCH!" _

_"DADDY! Ow, that hurts! Daddy? Daddy, what are you- DADDY!" _

"Lili? Are you in there?" Lili raised her head.

"Y-yeah.." she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. Seychelles pushed the door open, and pulled Lili out of the stall.

"What's wrong?" she asked soothingly, pulling her friend into a hug.

"Nothing's wrong. It's okay...I just...I was just thinking about...about how I suck at gym! I'm going to fail, I know it!" Seychelles raised her eyebrows, but nodded sympathetically as Lili wiped her eyes and re-tied her purple ribbon.

"Where did you get that, by the way? It's lovely." Seychelles said, trying to cheer Lili up. Lili smiled and blushed a little, always a good sign.

"Um, it was at the beginning of the summer. I was walking with Vash through the neighbourhood...I suppose I was wearing a loose shirt and pants, because it hurt to wear tighter...I mean, because I wanted to. Anyways, some lady said that he had a really cute brother. So I...so I...anyways, then he bought me this ribbon, so people could tell I'm a girl." Lili explained with a few pauses. Seychelles giggled.

"Well, trust me. I'm sure nobody will ever mistake you for a boy again, you're too pretty!" Lili shook her head, but allowed herself to be led out of the changeroom.

XxXxXxXx

Vash sighed with relief as Lili stepped out of the changeroom, smiling again. She walked out, and- was suddenly hit right in the stomach with a dodgeball. She fell back against the wall and sank down, holding her stomach, the wind knocked out of her. Vash swore under his breath and looked for the perp. Finding Ivan, he hurled the ball in his hands at him, hard. It caught him right in the chest, and he walked away to sit on the 'out' bench. Vash spotted Lili, sitting on the bench as well, and she smiled at him, causing him to blush and look away shyly.

"HEADS UP, BRIT BOY!"

Vash turned to see Alfred fling his ball (after several epic wind-up movements) straight at Arthur, getting him on the shoulder. Vash surreptitiously moved _away _from the crazy American. He'd noticed that Alfred, although he didn't take gymclass seriously, liked to pummel people if they looked bored.

XxXxXxXx

Lovino Vargas was scowling. This was, of course, normal Lovino behaviour, but just now, Lovino scowled for a very specific reason: Antonio Carriedo was, not only in every single one of his classes, but he also seemed intent on getting Lovino to like him. Lovi was completely confused about _why _Antonio, who seemed to have ignored him the whole time they'd known each other before, now wanted to be with Lovi _every frickin' minute of the day. _

"Damn Spaniard..." Lovino muttered under his breath as he pushed open the door to the guy's changeroom, gym class finally over.

"Loviii! Hey!" Speak of the devil...Lovino didn't bother to turn around.

"What?" he snapped as Antonio swung an arm around his shoulders.

"Aw, your words are so harsh, Lovi." he said, affectionately ruffling the younger boy's hair before tugging on his long curly strand. Lovino jumped and shoved Antonio away from him, trying to calm down...This had to be Antonio's most _annoying _habit. But Lovino could never tell him how it made him feel...because, knowing Antonio, he'd either be a total pervert and do it _all the time..._or he'd stop completely. And somehow, Lovino didn't really want that.

"You're just as bad at gym as you used to be, Lovino!" Antonio exclaimed as he followed Lovino over to his bag. Lovi scoffed.

"I'm not _bad _at gym. It just seems that way, because _you're _really good." he said, irritated. Then he realized he'd just paid Antonio a compliment.

"Er..I mean, you're just...well, gym sucks anyways, damnit!" he said angrily, crossing his arms. Antonio laughed, and Lovi looked up to yell at him, but his eyes were met with Antonio...half-naked.

Lovi blushed and turned around quickly before diving into a bathroom stall to change. Not like he was going to change _out there, _because he'd just look stupid out there, next to Antonio...and his stupid toned arms and gross tanned chest and his...his dumb four pack... There was _no way _Lovino wanted to be compared with _that _guy.

So he changed in blissful privacy, and swung the door open only when he was completely clothed. He found the entire changeroom empty. Apparently the lunch bell had rung. He sighed and stepped out of the bathroom stall.

"Lovi, you're super slow." Antonio complained suddenly from behind him, making him jump. Two long, muscular arms suddenly shot our and wrapped around Lovino's shoulders, pulling him backwards until his back was flush against Antonio's hard chest.

"W-What the hell?" he stammered, furiously blushing, trying not to think about the tiny pulse of excitement that seemed to be beating somewhere inside him. It was ridiculous...completely ridiculous. Antonio didn't answer, he just buried his face in Lovino's shoulder with a sigh. Lovi squirmed, trying hard to pull away, but Antonio was just as strong as he looked.

"Let go, damnit! Perverted bastard, lemme go!" he demanded, knowing that he didn't really mean it: his mind was still reeling from the warmth of Antonio's breath on his neck, to the way he smelled just as good as he used to...

"Fine, I will. It's lunch time, anyways. Will you eat outside with me? I want to talk to you." Antonio said, letting go of Lovino, who suddenly felt cold where Antonio's body had been pressed up against him.

He frowned, walking out of the changeroom with Antonio, considering whether or not to refuse. For one, he hated the Spaniard's guts, and wanted nothing more than to shove his offer in his face along with a couple insults. But there was a part of him (a very persuasive part, mind you) that didn't want to leave Antonio.

"Well?" Antonio pressed as they walked out of the gym. Lovino sighed.

"Fine. But don't get the wrong idea. I don't like you. I just...don't really have anything better to do." Antonio smiled.

"That's fine then. Thank you, Lovi." He gave Lovino a dazzling smile. The shorter teen scowled and looked away, blushing slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...don't be so mushy. It's lame." The sound of Antonio's laughter echoed around the empty gym.

XxXxXxXx

"Seychelles!" Lili and Seychelles turned around, their lockers still open. Arthur Kirkland was standing behind them, looking a little awkward, with his hands casually in the pockets of his uniform.

"Yes?" Seychelles asked, barley hiding her excitement. Lili casually turned back to her locker and began reorganizing her binders and books, not that they were messy in the first place.

"As the school prefect, it's my responsibility to take new students on a tour of the school halls and grounds. I would take both of you, but your brother, Lili-" Lili looked up in surprise.

"Vash?" she asked, and Arthur ran a hand through his messy hair.

"Um, yeah...He said that he'd take you on a tour instead, because he thought that you might prefer it that way." Lili blushed and nodded before turning back to her locker, unsure quite what to think.

"So...would you like a tour today? After school, maybe, if that's convenient for you?" Arthur asked, obviously trying to sound professional instead of hopeful. Seychelles beamed at him.

"Yes, _merci beaucoup! _That's perfect. Where do you want to meet?" she asked, already excited.

"I'll meet you here after the last class of the day." he said briskly, waved goodbye, and was gone. Seychelles made sure that he was long gone down the hall before squealing in happiness and spinning around, giving a few thirteen-year-old guys a panty shot by mistake. After blushing and yanking her skirt down, she leaned against her locker, placing a hand above her heart romantically.

"This is amazing, Lili! I'm going to see him after school! Who knows...maybe he'll ask me to be his girlfriend! Or maybe he'll turn out to be a prince from a far-away kingdom..." Lili smiled at her new friend.

"Well...maybe! But if you ask me, he seems to be the type to take it slow. But I think that he really likes you!" she said quickly when Seychelles sighed.

"Yeah...he probably takes things slowly...not like Francis." Seychelles said, rolling her eyes, but smiling.

"You like him too, right?" Lili asked, not really needing Seychelles to answer.

"Well," she said, pouting as she thought. " I don't like how he grabbed my butt the first day of school. However...he's _so _romantic, and really...really...romantic, and...and..._French, _and he's a really good person to talk to, and he's really funny, and he can be really kind, too...And I love it when he hugs me, because he smells really good and he's all warm and...and romantic...he makes me feel like a princess, and he always treats me like I'm his true love, or something." Seychelles sighed happily.

Lili snorted, and Seychelles looked at her in surprise: Lili didn't seem the type to do such un-delicate things.

"So...you like him because he's really romantic. What do you like about Arthur so far?" "Well...he's got the _sexiest _British accent ever, which frankly just turns me on, and he's really cute, trying to be all professional when he's talking, and he's a real gentleman, who _obviously _would _never _grope a girl he just met." Lili grinned and rolled her eyes: Seychelles was _clearly _a hopeless romantic.

"Well, why do you like...er...whoever you like? And _don't _say you don't like anybody, I know you do." Seychelles said shrewdly. Lili gasped in surprise and dropped her books. As she picked them up again, she bit her lip, knowing that if she said too much, Seychelles would surely find out that she liked Vash, and then she might not want to be friends with her anymore...

"Er...er well, the thing I like about the _person _I like...not that I like anybody-"

"Oh please." Seychelles rolled her eyes, and Lili grinned. "Okay, _fine _then. I like...I like his eyes, and I like his hair, and I like the way he talks, and how he walks, and er..." Lili couldn't help it: she was beginning to blush.

"I...I love the way he smiles at me, and how he always makes sure that I'm okay. I love going to the park wit him, and just sitting next to him. I love the way he smells, and the way he always helps me, and...I'm sorry. I shouldn't be saying so much." Lili apologized, but Seychelles just grinned and shook her head.

"_, _Lili. I think that you...I think you're in love with this guy. You looks so happy when you talk about him! Whoever he is, I hope he knows that he's damn lucky to have you!" she said, and Lili laughed.

"Thanks." she said before shutting her locker, walking down the hall with Seychelles.

"There's no cafeteria here?" Seychelles asked in disbelief after they'd walked around the school twice.

"I guess not!" Lili sighed, leaning against a wall. "_Ma belle Seychelles, _do you want to eat lunch with me?" Francis asked, suddenly behind them. Seychelles smiled, but began to say that she had promised to eat lunch with Lili.

"Go ahead, silly." Lili interrupted, shooing them away. Seychelles shot Lili a grateful smile before disappearing down the hall with Francis. Lili smiled and went outside, sitting on a bench on a path by the playing field. After taking a bite, she set her sandwich down in its box next to her, and took out her sketchbook.

"There you are. I thought you'd be outside." Lili turned around in surprise, to find Vash standing behind her, with a smile on his face and his lunch in his hands. "Big brother! I'm glad you found me. Please sit down!" she invited, happier now that Vash was there to keep her company. He sat down next to her, closer than necessary.

_Probably because it's cold,_ Lili thought as she concentrated on getting the proportions right on her drawing.

"Lili, I just wanted to say, I'm really sorry for what I said earlier. I feel awful and-"

"It's okay, Vash. I know it wasn't on purpose." Lili interrupted with a sweet smile on her face. Vash fell silent for a bit.

"By the way, thank you for making my lunch, it's very tasty." he said finally, and Lili smiled, happy that he liked it. Vash's green eyes fell on Lili's half-eaten sandwich, and he sighed, looking down at his own Raclette on bread.

"You know, I wish that you would take more time to make your own lunch, rather than spend so much time on mine." he said a little awkwardly, touched by her determination to make him happy. Lili looked at him in surprise.

"No, it's really okay!" she said, blushing faintly.

"I...I'm never very hungry at school, anyways, and I...I like making lunch for you." she said shyly, returning to her drawing. Vash took a moment to control his heart, which seemed to have been beating harder while Lili was looking at him so earnestly, before sneaking a glance at her sketchbook. She was defining the lines on a delicately-drawn picture of a teapot.

"That's really good!" he commented finally, blushing faintly when she turned in surprise.

"I mean, you don't even have a teapot in front of you, and yet it's perfect..." he clarified, trailing off awkwardly.

She beamed at him, and Vash held his breath as he looked at her radiant smile. He blushed and looked down at his food again, thinking, not for the first time, that if he could stay with Lili forever, he would be eternally happy.

XxXxxXx

_C'est d'accord_ **It's okay**

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><p>I hope you guys liked it! I'll upload soon, I hope...Love reviews!<strong><br>**


	4. AMOR

Thanks so much to the people who have favourited this story so far, and to my first reviewer, zoebella9898

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><p><strong>LOVE, Absolutely<strong>

Chapter 4: **AMOR**

XxXxxXx

Lovino was not comfortable. His back was squashed against the bark of a very old tree, and there was a large knot of wood digging into his shoulder. He would probably have bruises on his shoulders, too, because Antonio's hands were pressing on them so hard. "What the hell are you doing, damnit!" he exclaimed, angrily looking up into Antonio's brilliant green eyes. The Spaniard had dragged Lovino to this tree, which was hidden from view behind the school, saying that 'It's so much nicer to eat over here!' But they hadn't eaten anything yet.

The moment the school was out of sight, Antonio had grabbed Lovino by the shoulders and swung him against the tree, pinning him there. Their lunches lay forgotten on the ground with their bags. Lovino looked demandingly up at Antonio, who was looking back intensely.

His expression was calm, but Lovino could see frustration in his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Lovino asked again angrily, vaguely trying to get out of Antonio's grip, but his struggles were half-hearted: he already knew that he couldn't overpower him. Antonio's mouth was a thin line of seriousness as he looked forcefully into Lovino's eyes before answering.

"Lovi, I'm going to tell you some things right now that I meant to tell you years ago. I'm going to tell you a lot of things that I _know _you don't want to hear, but I have to say them to you, or I'll never...I'll never be able to stop...annoying you, I guess." he said ruefully before continuing.

"I know that once I've said everything, you're going to run away and hate me even more than you do right now, but I won't stop you, as long as you promise not to interrupt me. Okay?" Lovino was already imagining things like 'I'm in the Mafia' or 'I sold drugs to Feli', or even worse, 'I'm a prostitute, and my pimp is Ludvig.', but he nodded jerkily, knowing that if he refused, Antonio still wouldn't let him go.

"Okay...Okay thanks." Antonio said with a sigh, and released Lovino. Lovi immediately sank to the ground and crossed his arms as Antonio flopped down, too.

"How can you be smiling at a time like this!" Lovino exclaimed, glaring at Antonio, still suspicious of what it was he was going to be told. Antonio immediately wiped the smile off his face (literally, like you do with babies) and assumed an expression of horrible pain. But then he smiled again. Lovino couldn't help but laugh, but he quickly feigned a coughing fit.

"You're still the same, Lovi..." Antonio murmured, resting his chin on his fist.

"Hurry up and tell me, damnit. I'm starting to think it's something horrible." Lovino snapped, blushing in spite of himself. "And I'm damn hungry." he said as an afterthought, opening his lunchbox and biting into a slice of pizza.

"Are you going to tell me, or aren't you?" he demanded finally after a moment of silence. Antonio sighed.

"Yeah...Yeah okay. Lovi, I'm in love with you."

O_O

Lovino quickly swallowed before he could choke, and dropped his pizza.

"Excuse me!" he exclaimed, more shocked than anything. Antonio sighed again and rolled over onto his back, running a hand through his messy dark-brown hair.

"I'm in love with you, Lovino Vargas. I fell in love with you years ago. When we first met, actually." Lovino was opening and closing his mouth like a fish. This didn't make sense at _all. _This was probably a joke, but... "But...But I was only-" "Yeah. I know. That's why I avoided you when you were younger. I remember that when I started playing with Feli more, you'd shoot me these dark looks...damn I wish you knew what those did to me! Your eyes were smouldering, and- Yeah I won't go into details.." he said quickly, catching Lovino's scandalized expression.

"It's really amazing how this kind of thing happens. One day, I'm a typical teenager trying to get some money, and the next I'm some kind of pervert, keeping a job I shouldn't just so I can see some kid every day... Anyway, so that's the story. After a couple years, I got over you, and I got a girlfriend..." Lovino, who was still in a state of shock, suddenly glowered at Antonio's foot at the thought of him with a girl. Probably just because...because Lovino pitied the poor girl who would be stuck with such a perverted idiot. That's why.

"..but she dumped me, saying that I never paid attention to her. She was right, I guess...whenever she laughed it gave me a headache, because she didn't sound like you...whenever she smiled, although she was pretty, it never looked like yours...and she never got mad at me. Somehow...although that should have been nice, I felt like I was missing something, when I wasn't yelled at at least once every day. So imagine my happiness when I come to this school in the vague hope that I might see you, and there you are! Looking so..." Lovino blushed, just because...because a perverted gaze was upon him!...when Antonio looked over at him with a smile on his face.

"So...so sexy, but just as cute as ever. And you're just the same, still grumpy, still a food-lover, and you still have those smouldering glares... I know you make those scowling faces at me because you hate me, but you wouldn't believe how hot I think they are..." Lovino was seriously considering just running right there, but he had promised that he wouldn't interrupt, and somehow, it was nice to listen to Antonio's voice, no matter what kind of fucked-up things he was saying.

"So, there you have it. I am _still _in love with you, more so than before. And, right now, I want nothing more in the world than to just crawl over to you right now, and kiss you and hug you, and make you feel things that you've never felt before, and to love you with every fibre of my body. But, alas, _mi tomate, _such things are not meant to be. I will stop talking, you will run away and never speak to me again, and I will live out my life in misery." Lovino was still staring, his mind still reeling, completely unable to figure out whether he was freaked out or surprised or bat-shit crazy, or touched, or scared, or angry, or...or seriously longing for Antonio to _do _what he wanted to do.

"Er...I'm done now! ...This is the part where you run away." Antonio said, almost awkwardly, sitting up and looking at Lovino warily. But Lovino just sat there, like a statue, his expression sort of neutral except for a tiny frown.

"Are you going to hit me-" Antonio almost finished asking, when he was suddenly hit in the chest by what felt like a bull, but really it was Lovino, moving at speed, rugby-tackling him around the waist.

"Lovi, what are you- mmph!" Lovino wasn't even thinking. Had he been thinking, even a _little _bit, he would have run for the school. He would never have launched himself at Antonio. He never would have glomped him. He would never, never _ever _have kissed him forcefully, right on the mouth. But, of course, he wasn't thinking. So that's exactly what he did.

Antonio, although caught by surprise, wasn't known as the most passionate loverboy ever for nothing. Almost as soon as he realized what was happening, he buried one hand in Lovino's hair, tugging on the curly strand that Antonio had always _known _was his erogenous zone, and flipped him over, dominating the situation quickly.

The tongue-battle was quickly won by Antonio, who proceeded to explore every inch of the little Italian's mouth, while the hand that wasn't stroking Lovino's curly strand of hair was quickly making its way up his shirt, dancing over his chest. Once Antonio's hand brushed over a nipple on its way across, combined with the Spaniard's torture of that curly hair, it was too much for Lovino; he moaned loudly, breathless as Antonio continued kissing him.

Finally, Lovino managed to push Antonio off, but still held onto the collar of his shirt as he tried to get his breath back, his cheeks flaming with heat.

"Y-You...total bastard..." he panted, glaring up at Antonio, whose hair was even more ruffled than normal, but whose expression was one of purest delight and want.

"You sure don't...let _breathing _get in the way...do you?" Lovino asked, annoyed, finally breathing properly again. Antonio just shrugged and moved closer to Lovino again. Lovi shut his eyes and took a deep breath, but Antonio just laughed and hugged him, pulling him close. Lovino buried his nose in Antonio's crumpled uniform, breathing in his heady scent.

"So...so now what?" Antonio asked tentatively, after five minutes of silence. Lovino opened his eyes, frowning. Now what, indeed? He hadn't run away when he should have.

He had kissed Antonio, even though he'd never known he wanted to...okay that was a lie, he'd wanted to a _lot..._but...but after hating Antonio for so long, was it right to just...Wait, no. Had he _really _hated Antonio the entire time? Sure, he was mad for being ignored, but if he'd hated Antonio, surely he'd have _liked _to be left alone? So...so if he _liked _Antonio, and he just _made out _with Antonio, then...then the logical thing to would be to...

"Um, can I go out with you?" Lovino inwardly collapsed in shock: that was _not _what he'd been thinking! His plan had been to shove Antonio off of him, claim to be drunk, then rush back to the school and pretend that nothing had ever happened! That way, it wouldn't be complicated, and he could hate Antonio for being a total pervert. So why had he said that! Antonio looked down at him, just as surprised as he was...but ultimately radiating happiness, as usual.

"Of course you can, Lovi! But I feel silly now, I was about to _beg _you to go out with me." Lovino blushed and looked away.

"T-This isn't for the reason you think, you know!" he said insistently, crossing his arms, and Antonio smirked.

"Oh yeah?" he asked teasingly, and Lovino nodded.

"Yes. I only asked because...because that way you can help me with my Spanish homework." Antonio grinned.

"That's fine, Lovi. But you know...I would have helped you even if we _weren't _going out." Lovino's back up plan deflated. He could say 'Ah, yes, right, well then, I _won't _go out with you, hows that?', but somehow he didn't want to.

"So...we're going out?" Antonio asked casually.

"Yes..." Lovino said uncertainly, still looking away from Antonio and completely unsure of anything except that up was up and down was down.

"And if we're going out, are you okay with me touching you?" Antonio pressed, and Lovino suddenly realized that this was the voice he used when playing. Lovi blushed darker, but nodded stiffly, because...because...because...okay he didn't have a reason other than he liked to be touched...specifically by Antonio.

"So...it's okay to do...this?" Antonio asked softly, in a terribly seductive voice as he leaned over, placed a hand under Lovino's chin, turned his face towards his own, and kissed him softly.

"Erm, actually, this might be not allowed..." Lovi mumbled, his voice muffled against Antonio's lips. The Spaniard smirked and began kissing more, the kiss becoming more and more sensual, but slow enough to make it almost torturous.

"Are you sure...are you sure it's not okay?" Antonio murmured in a soft voice, his arms wrapping around Lovino, capturing him in a strong grip and pulling him close against his chest.

"Um...mmm..." Lovino's whole train of thought (which, at its prime, had been focused on stopping any kind of behaviour that might make Lovino lose his will to hate Antonio) was slipping off its tracks, being replaced by thoughts of how he wanted to stay with Antonio for hours and hours...days, weeks, months...years, even.

"Um...maybe...maybe it's okay...damnit..." Lovino gave in as Antonio took his lower lip between his teeth, tugging gently as he played with his hair. Antonio smirked.

"Are you sure, Lovi? Because I could stop..." he said tantalizingly as he pulled away so he wasn't touching Lovino at all.

_Damnit...Damn Antonio...Damnit Damnit Damnit I want him to touch me. _Lovino glared at Antonio, who shivered, meeting the dark gaze that was penetrating his soul.

_Touch me. Touch me. Touch me. Touch me. TOUCH ME, DAMNIT!_

Lovino, keeping his blazing gaze on the ground, shuffled towards Antonio until his cheek was pressed against the older boy's chest. Raising his head slightly, still not making eye contact, he whispered in his ear; "Touch me, damnit!" Antonio had never been so turned on by just three words in his life.

Let's just say, they skipped the last class of the day.

XxXxXxXx

"I'll see you tomorrow!" Lili said, waving to Seychelles who was going to wait for Arthur at her locker. English class had finally ended: Seychelles had been bouncing in her seat the whole hour and a half, too excited to concentrate.

"Bye, Lili! _Me souhaiter bonne chance!_" she called, waving back.

"Good luck!" Lili said with a grin and walked down the hallway towards classroom 112, where Vash had said that his last-block class of the day, Science, was. She leaned against the wall outside the classroom: apparently the teacher was holding the class behind for a bit. Finally, students began to leave the room. Lili waited for Vash, humming under her breath.

"Hey beautiful. What's up?" Lili looked up in surprise to see Alfred, the tall, muscular Americain from Vash's class leaning against the wall next to her. She frowned slightly, not sure if he was flirting or just being nice.

"Um, not a lot, thank you." she said primly and crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping he'd leave. If Vash saw her talking to him... But Alfred didn't go, he just crossed his arms and gave her a cheeky grin.

"Well, if you're not busy, sugar, do you want to come to a party with me on Saturda-"

"She's already going with me, Alfred. See you tomorrow." A wonderfully familiar voice cut across the friendly boy, and a warm hand enveloped Lili's, leading her down the hall.

"What happened to not talking to strangers?" Vash asked sternly. Lili looked down, ashamed, but her heart was pounding with excitement as it always did when Vash held her hand.

"I'm sorry, big brother...I was going to say no anyways." she said truthfully. Vash sighed but smiled down at her. It was hard to be strict with such an adorable girl, no matter how much he tried.

"By the way, why is Alfred in your Science class when he's in all my other classes?"

"Oh, it's because he skipped a year in Science." Vash explained, and Lili nodded. There was a comfortable silence, broken only by the buzz of conversation surrounding them.

"So, tell me about your first day at school." Vash said as they walked hand-in-hand out the school doors. Lili smiled, thinking about just how much had happened in one solitary day.

"Well, I had to stand up and introduce myself in front of my class." she supplied as they began walking across the playing field.

"How was that?" Vash asked, and Lili bit back a smile.

"Well, I was really embarrassed, but I think it was okay. Seychelles, my new friend, sits in front of me in Social Studies, between Arthur and Francis. She has a crush on _both _of them, and she's a seriously romantically-centred person, but I think she's very nice. Francis groped her and she slapped him." Lili remembered with a grin.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about that. He had a handprint on his face for a whole hour!" Vash said with a nod.

"Then in gym class...well, you were there, so of course it's my favourite class of the day..." Lili said with a faint blush. Vash blushed, too, but looked away so she wouldn't see.

"And I thought it was fun. The gym uniforms are so embarrassing to wear, though!" she said with a sigh. Vash remembered her expression when she'd come out of the changerooms...and blushed again.

"I felt so embarrassed next to Hungary and Bella and everybody...I mean, they look so...and I just felt..." Lili was trying not to say the words 'huge boobs' or 'totally flat', but it was hard to avoid them.

"Well, I think you looked just fine, Lili." Vash saved her shyly, and she smiled, leaning against him briefly in a silent thanks.

"English class was also fun," Lili continued. "The tables are organized in squares, so I sit facing Seychelles, next to Kiku, and diagonally from Matthew, who...wasn't there again. He's sick." Vash nodded silently with a smile. As long as she wasn't sitting with Roderich, everything was fine.

"Oh, look! It's so pretty!" Lili exclaimed, stooping down to look at a flower growing by a fence-post. "I'm just going to sketch it quickly. I don't want to keep you waiting though...please, just keep walking!" Lili said, already digging in her bag for her sketchbook.

"I'll catch up with you really quickly, I promise!" "Okay." Vash said, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he kept walking up the path beside the soccer field. After about ten seconds, he couldn't help it; he glanced back at Lili.

She was kneeling on the ground, obviously getting grass stains on her tights as she eagerly sketched the little flower. Behind her, the soccer team was practising shooting. Surprising, considering that it was the first day of school. Vash turned away again, walking slowly up the path, thinking about how much nicer his life was now that Lili lived with him, when his thoughts were interrupted by loud shouts. He half-turned in time to see Feliciano, a smart but pretty cowardly kid in his class, miss the goal by a mile. The ball soared to the left, straight for...

"HEADS UP!"

Lili turned around slightly, annoyed by the loud shout. She looked up in time to be hit straight in the face by a fast-moving soccer ball. She fell backwards, a ringing sound in her ears and the odd sensation of having all her blood pumping in her face as she collapsed on the grass. The soccer ball, unhurt, bounced away.

While Lili tried to get her breath, vision, and the feeling in her face back, she was aware of three things around her: First, a lot of yells of 'Feli, look what you did! Second, lots of heavy footsteps coming her way, mingling with loud apologies, and Third, her favourite voice in the world...swearing enthusiastically at the soccer team. She was also, for some reason, hearing the sound of a rifle clicking, ready to fire.

She sat up, only seeing a green blur and feeling _very _dizzy, as strong arms circled her waist, hoisting her to her feet, and then holding her close in a hug. Lili sniffed weakly, the scent of apples and forests filling her nose. _The smell pervert strikes again..._she thought, almost laughing.

"Big brother?" she mumbled into his jacket, but he wasn't listening: he was still yelling at the poor soccer team. She could hear a boy crying as he yelled, and she giggled. Finally he stopped, and looked at her carefully.

"Are you okay, Lili?" he asked, surprisingly tenderly. Lili smiled up at him, trying to ignore her throbbing headache.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry I wasn't looking." she added to the boy who was at her right, apologizing profusely.

"It's them who should apologise. Worst aim I've seen in my whole life!" he fumed, and Lili laughed.

"Let's go." she said, taking his hand again.

"Are you sure you're okay to-" Vash began, interrupted when Lili swayed slightly as she stepped forward. He caught her immediately, and shook his head.

"Come on. I'll carry you."

"But-!"

"I'm not going to have you walking around! You might have a concussion!" he said worriedly. The soccer team, meanwhile, slinked away and continued practice. Lili blushed.

"But, I'm heav-"

"If you say heavy..." Vash warned her, and she sighed.

"_Fine_, okay. Thankyou very much." she relented. Vash gave her his bag, and bent his knees. Lili jumped up onto his back, but slipped down almost immediately.

"You have to hold on tighter than _that_, silly." he said cheerfully, and Lili blushed.

"Okay..." She jumped again, flinging her arms around Vash's neck, squeezing her legs around his hips. As Vash looped his arms around her legs and began walking, he was eternally grateful for the fact that Lili couldn't see his face. She would probably think that he was a total pervert...because the feeling of her legs gripping his hips so tightly was making him blush.

Neither of them noticed the fact that Lili's skirt was hitched up, so everybody behind them could see her underwear.

XxXxXxXx

"Seychelles?" Seychelles looked around happily and found her favourite Brit behind her.

"Arthur!" she exclaimed, shutting her locker and picking up her bag.

"Hi. It's time for your tour...oh, and when do you want me to tutor you in math?" he asked. Seychelles beamed.

"Um, whenever you're free would be great! I don't really have a schedule, so I'm okay with any time!" Suddenly Lili's voice spoke up in Seychelles' mind, making her jump slightly: _since when can Lili talk to my mind! _Fearing she was going crazy, Seychelles listened as she walked next to Arthur down the emptying school halls.

_"Don't appear too available, or he'll think that you're...er, available! Pretend your busy some days of the week, then say it 's a secret! That'll make him more interested!" _

"Oh!" Seychelles exclaimed, and Arthur looked at her oddly. Trying to regain her composure, Seychelles twirled her pigtails, smiling.

"Um, I just remembered! I'm actually busy on...Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays." she bluffed, and to her surprise, Arthur immediately seemed to perk up.

"Really? What do you do on those days?" he asked with interest. _Now what, genius? _Seychelles asked the voice in her head.

"Er...I normally hang out _avec un ami_." she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. Arthur shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against a wall. He was frowning slightly, his adorable thick eyebrows bent in slight frustration.

"Oh...well, not that it's any of my business, but...is it Francis?" he asked bluntly.

"Er..." Oh great. This is the kind of situation that lying leads to.

"Well-"

"He's not your boyfriend, is he?" Arthur exclaimed suddenly, his expression of mild interest hardly concealing his concern. Seychelles laughed.

"Of course he isn't! We haven't seen each other for years!" Arthur sighed with relief, cleared his throat, and continued the tour.

"...this is the janitor's closet. I guess, as the school prefect, I'm _not _supposed to know this, and I'm _definitely _not supposed to _tell _you, but this is the favourite place for people to make out during break." Seychelles looked inside.

"You'd think that it wasn't safe...imagine if the janitor came along!" Arthur laughed, and Seychelles felt a jolt to her heart; he had a _gorgeous _laugh.

"That _never _happens, because the janitor doesn't even know that this is his closet!"

"_What?" _Seychelles asked in surprise. Arthur shut the door and kept walking as he explained.

"When the new janitor was hired, four years ago, several troublemaking students...well, I helped too..." Seychelles giggled, remembering that Francis had called Arthur a 'punk', probably because of this.

"...anyways, they told the janitor that the rooms were mislabelled, and that his closet was _actually _the storeroom in the gym. So this whole time, the janitor's closet has been a safe zone for horny students." he explained with a grin. Seychelles laughed, and the sound echoed down the empty hallway.

"This is the principal's office...he's never here, though, so it's usually empty."

"Why isn't he ever here?" Seychelles asked in surprise: she had always thought that the principal's job was to be in their office if anybody needed 'severe punishment'. Arthur ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, it's because he's always away at meetings and things, trying to get more funding for the school. And...he likes to go on holidays."

"Oh. Lucky guy." Seychelles said, and Arthur chuckled.

"Well, yeah...plus, he _knows _about the mixed-up janitor's closet...he just doesn't care." 

_"Really?" _Seychelles asked in surprise as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Ladies first." Arthur said, and Seychelles blushed, stepping forward.

"You're a real gentleman, you know that.." she said shyly. Suddenly her shoe slipped on the step, and she fell backwards into Arthur's arms. She stared up at him, heart pounding, both from her near-fall and from Arthur's arms around her. He also stared down at her, looking embarrassed and relieved at the same time.

Seychelles was convinced: it was definitely love.

She was in love.

XxXxXxXxXx

The tour ended a half-hour later, and Seychelles took the bus to get home quicker; she was excited to call Lili and tell her that she offically liked Arthur better than Francis. Taking a short cut across the park, Seychelles caught sight of two familiar figures in the distance. Jogging towards them and squinting, she recognized Lili getting a piggyback from Vash.

Seychelles grinned and took another shortcut, intending to cut them off, but when she met up with them again, they didn't see her. They walked right past the entrance to the path she'd taken, both caught up in their own little world. Seychelles stared at Lili, who looked as if she were on cloud 9. She was looking up at the sky, blushing, but bending down subtly every so often to smell Vash's hair, smiling.

Vash himself looked incredibly cheerful, and when Lili readjusted herself when she began to slip down, clutching him tighter as she hoisted herself further up, he blushed and looked at the ground. Seychelles watched them, beginning to wonder if this was normal second-cousin behaviour. As they walked past, she looked behind them, and her jaw dropped to the ground.

Lili's underpants were showing. And they were unbearably cute. They were the kind of frilly pink panties you imagine on a doll. And they had a bunny on the bum. Seychelles debated whether or not to inform Lili that they were showing for so long, that when she looked for them, they were gone.

Oh well, Seychelles thought with a shrug, turning to go home.

Ignorance is bliss, of course.

XxXxXxXxXx

_Me souhaiter bonne chance!_ **Wish me luck!**


	5. MIŁOŚĆ

**LOVE, Absolutely**

Chapter 5: **MIŁOŚĆ **

XxXxXxXxXx

Feliks was bouncing on his seat as the bus rounded the last corner. Today he was _finally _going to go to his new school. Just 48 hours previously, he'd been sitting on an airplane flying from Poland.

But now, all the moving was done, the paperwork was filled out, and he was on the bus to school. Two weeks into the year, but better late then never, right? He smiled and readjusted his hairclips: he wanted to look perfect on his first day.

Because today, for the first time in five years, he was going to see his best friend. Toris was at his new school. Feliks grinned to himself and turned up his Ipod, switching the song from _Hollaback Girl _to _Cherry Bomb. _

The bus stopped a block before the school, and Feliks hopped out, thanking the driver as he did so. He began to walk up the cobblestone path towards the tiny private school. Now that Toris was so close, Feliks was starting to get nervous: what if he didn't recognize him? What if he was sick? What if...what if he didn't _like _Feliks anymore?

Feliks shook his head, smiled, full of determination: no matter what, he would be okay. Besides, they had made a promise...

_Feliks impatiently wiped away the tears that were spilling down his cheeks, glaring at the ground. _

"_It's not fair! It's not fair, I HATE THIS!" he wailed, rubbing his eyes and sitting down on the grassy hill. Toris smiled sadly and sat down across from him, placing a warm hand on his shoulder. _

"_Don't cry, Feliks! You said that you're coming back in five years! We'll see each other then!" Feliks began to cry harder. _

"_That's _years _away, Toris! What if you move away? What if...what if you forget about me?" Toris hesitantly put his arms around his crying friend, and Feliks grabbed him, pulling him closer, crying into his T-shirt. _

"_I promise I'll never move away from here. Even if my family wants to, I'll stay right here. I would live in a cave if it meant that you'd come back and I could see you again. I...I don't want you to go either..." Toris was starting to lose his composure as tears welled up in his own eyes. "...but you're the best friend I've ever had! I'm not just going to forget about you! I never could..." Feliks looked up at him, still crying. "...I could never forget about you, Feliks." Toris finished in a watery voice. Feliks wailed, burying his face once more into his friend's shirt. _

"_I...I love you, Toris!"_

Feliks mounted the steps up to the front doors of the school, and turned left, finding the office immediately. In some ways, tiny schools could be really convenient. He signed in, got his locker number and lock, and his class schedule.

He thanked the secretary, dumped his jacket in his locker, and walked to his first class as the bell rang. He handed a note to his teacher, explaining where he'd been, etc, and sat down at the desk she pointed him to. He was pretty early, and the first one there.

After a few minutes of listening to his music and worrying a bit more, a girl walked in the door. Almost the instant she saw him, Hungary had raced across the room and seized him up in a tight hug.

"Feliks, darling! I _missed _you, thank God you're back!" she squealed, rocking side to side as she hugged him. Feliks laughed and hugged her back.

"I missed you too, Ellie! You look like a _girl _now!" he teased, and Elisabeta rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know...I caved after Bella forced me into shopping for dresses." she sighed, and he laughed. They stood together, talking about everything Feliks had missed while he'd been in Poland, oblivious as the classroom started to fill with people.

XxXxXxXx

Toris was awake at seven, which was unnaturally early for him. He rolled over with a sigh, and closed his eyes, determined to get a little more sleep. Ten minutes later, he gave up and got up.

After getting dressed he went downstairs, drank a glass of orange juice, and started making breakfast for his mother and little sister, Ana. He switched on the TV, listening to the news as he completed the morning's crossword.

As he finished his orange juice and started reorganizing his backpack, a small sarcastic voice floated into his head. He was used to this voice of course: it was the voice of Feliks, his best friend since kindergarten.

"_Geez, could you _be _any lamer? Just trying to, like, keep yourself busy so you don't think about what's happening today, I bet. But still, a _crossword? _Before school? Totally L.A.M.E." _

Toris rolled his eyes and sighed. Today was the day that he was going to see Feliks for the first time in five years. To say that he was nervous was a huge understatement. A _huge _understatement. He flopped over onto the couch, rubbing his face.

He was a worrywart by nature, so he spent a good ten minutes agonizing over every tiny little detail, from 'What if Feliks doesn't like me any more?' to 'What if Feliks has a huge boyfriend or...no, definitely boyfriend, who's totally macho and won't let me see him!'

"Hey, you. Are you freaking out _again_?" Toris looked up to see Ana eating the breakfast he'd made for her and looking at him with an expression that clearly read 'you sad bastard'. Toris sighed and rolled off the couch.

"Yes, yes I am. You're welcome for the breakfast, by the way." he said shortly (totally out of character for him) and walked out the door, grabbing his bag on the way. He walked down the street, his eyes focused on the school as he went.

Out of all of his friends, (not that he had many), Toris lived the closest to the school, only five minutes away. But today it took him ten minutes, because every footstep seemed to be a mile, his feet felt like they were made of lead, and he had the unpleasant sensation that a rather large squid was determined to free itself from his body, and had decided that climbing up his stomach towards his throat, throttling all vital organs in its path, was the quickest way out.

He finally rounded the last corner and walked through the iron gate, an unsettling mixture of anticipation and anxiousness bouncing around in his stomach as he passed silently through the gaggle of chattering teenagers. He meant to take a refreshing trip to his locker, to try and drum up a little bit more self-confidence, but the bell rang just as he got there.

Opening his locker anyways, he glanced at the only picture he had sticky-tacked to the door: an old polaroid shot of himself and Feliks when they were ten years old. Feliks had his hand positioned in his trademark half-thumbs-down, and Toris was holding a book. Cool, right?

He sighed and shut his locker after grabbing his textbook. He remembered how he'd felt when he'd first met Feliks; awestruck and inadequate. Feliks was the new kid at kindergarten, and the teacher had asked Toris to show him around.

He grinned to himself, remembering the very first question he had ever asked his soon-to-be best friend; "Are you a girl?" True, Feliks had been wearing a skirt, but over the years, Toris had simply gotten used to it. In fact, it quickly became perfectly normal.

The biggest question he had ever had about his new friend was always the one that he never asked out loud: 'Why do you like me so much?' Feliks was so funny, so cool, so confident...why would he want to hang out with somebody who was almost his complete opposite?

Toris smiled to himself one last time, and walked into his classroom.

He glanced around the room quickly before sitting in his seat next to Mathias, or 'Denmark' as his friends sometimes called him. Mathias was laughing as usual, going about his daily business of over-the-top flirting with his best friend Ice, so Toris just bent his head down and began to draw on his binder.

When he was almost done the end of a dragon, Mathias suddenly elbowed him and bent down conspiratorially.

"Hey, Toris! I think there's a new chick in our class! She's hot, isn't she?" As Toris looked up, he was suddenly aware of a lot of whispering among the guys surrounding him, Ivan included, and Ivan _never _whispered...unless he was trying to be terrifying. And succeeding...

Toris looked around, vaguely looking for the 'new girl'.

"Where?" he asked, and Mathias pointed to a blonde girl who was facing away, talking animatedly to Elisabeta.

Toris looked her up and down, frowning slightly. She had slender legs...actually, altogether a pretty slender frame, and light blonde hair that was cropped pretty short. Toris was just starting to think that this girl seemed familiar somehow, when a laughing voice suddenly floated over the chatter, and Toris' jaw dropped.

"No way! I _totally _didn't see that coming! That's, like, crazy!"

Toris stood up in surprise: he _knew _that speech pattern. He had memorized it. His subconscious spoke like that. Because the voice in his head was Feliks', and _that girl, _was most definitely a _boy. _

"Feliks?" He called over the buzz of the classroom. The blonde turned around. There was a chorus of sighs and groans from the guys as they realized that she...no, _he..._was totally flat.

Toris' eyes fell upon the face of his best friend. He looked _exactly _the same. Except different in a most alluring way... Feliks' face lit up in happiness, and he had taken two steps towards Toris, opening his arms as if to hug him, when the teacher walked in and ordered that everybody return to their seats.

As he started the roll-call, Toris looked over at Feliks, finding that he was unable to take his eyes off of him. Feliks looked his way and winked at him with a naughty smile. Toris blushed and looked away before telling himself to get a grip.

'This is _Feliks _we're talking about! Your best friend! ...A _guy!' _he muttered angrily, ordering himself not to get any ideas just because Feliks was wearing a skirt. A short skirt. After all, he'd worn a short skirt ever since he was a kid. But he couldn't help himself from dazedly watching Feliks smile, talk, laugh, write, breathe...

'Damnit, I'm becoming a psycho.' Toris banged his head down on his table.

XxXxXxXx

Lovino was sitting on the low stone fence at the back of the school, scowling and listening to his Ipod. It was break, and he was waiting for Antonio to meet him. No, scratch that: he _happened _to sit on the fence, because he was bored...and it was a pure coincidence that Antonio had mentioned meeting him there...Lovino's pride would not allow him to admit, even if it wasn't out loud, that he was waiting for Antonio...for his _boyfriend. _

Five minutes later, Lovino decided that he didn't want to appear totally desperate, and he stood up, muttering 'That's it, I'm going'. But he paused, just in case. Not thirty seconds later, two familiar, long, warm arms grabbed him from behind, encircling his chest and pulling him backwards towards Antonio, who had just appeared.

"Lovi! You actually waited for me! Aw...I'm so happy.." he cooed, burying his face in Lovino's neck, making him yelp. Not without effort, Lovino pushed himself away and turned to face Antonio, blushing and embarrassed.

"B-Bastard! Don't just grab people from behind! You could have been a...a rapist!" "We have a _rapist, _in Lincoln Park..." Spain quoted, and Lovino cracked a smile, unable to stop himself.

"Loviii! You're _smiling! _It's so _cute! _Where's my camera!" Antonio said excitedly, effectively wiping the smile straight off of Lovino's face.

"Aw it's gone. You should take those out when people talk to you, Lovi. It's rude not to." Antonio chastised, taking out one of Lovino's earphones. He smirked and put it in his own ear, making Lovino instantly fumble for his Ipod to change the song to something a little...less embarrassing, but Antonio grabbed it from his hands before he could so much as touch a button.

"Give it back, bastard!" Lovino made a valiant leap for the Ipod, but Antonio just laughed and kept it tantalizingly out of Lovi's reach. "I don't believe it. You're listening to _Milkshake?_" he asked, more amused than surprised. Lovino's blush darkened and he muttered something insulting, but didn't do anything else. Antonio looked at him appraisingly before glancing around, knowing that Lovino didn't want anyone to see them together.

Once he was satisfied that they weren't being watched, he moved closer to Lovino, much closer than necessary for just talking, ignoring his protests, and moved his mouth close to his ear. Lovino shivered, blushing furiously, but he didn't protest...because...because...because he didn't care.

"_My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard and they're like, it's better than yours, damn right, it's better than yours...I could teach you, but I'd have to charge..._" he whispered, grinning.

"Shut up, damnit!" Lovino hissed, blushing bright red and trying to get away. Antonio stopped him quickly, catching him in a hug and sealing his lips in a soft kiss that slowly grew more demanding. The bell rang for class, but Antonio didn't stop, so Lovino had to push him off.

"It's class time, idiot." he said, blushing bright red. "If you want to...do weird things like that, you'd better wait for a longer break, damnit!" he continued, picking up his bag and storming off, leaving Antonio sitting on the wall, smiling at Lovino's retreating back.

As Antonio strolled into Spanish class and was marked down late, he glanced over at Lovino, and winked at him, grinning. Lovino was mortified: he couldn't believe that Antonio had done that _in front of the whole class! _Blushing fiercely, he buried his head in his arms and began to pretend that that had never happened.

Bella leaned close to his ear, and asked in a teasing voice: "So, was he winking at you, or did he just have something in his eye?"

"He's got something in his eye, damnit. And I hope it's _really _hurting him." Lovino grumbled as Antonio strolled over to his seat and sat down. When there were only forty minutes left in class, the teacher instructed everybody to start on the homework, and ask each other or herself if they had any questions.

Lovino opened his textbook, took out a piece of paper and a pen, and started down at the page. Okay. Spanish _wasn't _as similar to Italian as he'd hoped.

"Okay..." he muttered to himself as Bella trotted away to ask her brother a truckload of questions and Ivan went away to torment Toris. "Okay, so..._El viene con frecuencia a las seis..._well, that's like.._lui vuole fare sesso frequentemente. _Sort of. Wait, why is that in the textbook...?" Lovino was _not _having any success. After ten minutes of grinning, listening to him mutter away darkly and erase stuff, Antonio turned around.

"Need help, _mi tomate?_" Lovino looked up at him, and scowled.

"Could the look on your face _be _any smugger?" he asked in annoyance.

"Nope." Antonio replied before grabbing Lovino's sheet and skimming it, occasionally pausing to laugh at some of Lovino's more comical errors.

"It's not funny, damnit! Just shut up and help me, stupid bastard.." Lovino growled. Antonio smiled and opened the textbook.

"Okay. These are the verbs we're learning right now: _venir, correr, jugar, _and _comer. _Do you know what those mean?" Lovino sighed and shook his head. "Those are, in the same order, to come, to run, to play, and to eat. Can you try make a sentence with one of them, using the vocabulary list?" Antonio asked, flipping over the paper Lovino had been doodling tomatoes on, revealing a list of verbs and vocabulary.

"Um, okay..." Lovino frowned at the paper. "Yo...juego...con tu."

"Good!" Antonio praised happily. "You can write that one down! You just have to come up with twenty-four more sentences for homework!" Lovino frowned.

"But...But I don't have trouble with _that! _Conjugating the verbs is easy, and finding words in the vocabulary list is easy, too..." Antonio frowned.

"Well, what do you have trouble with, then?" Lovino blushed under his bright green gaze and self-consciously ruffled his hair.

"Um, I just don't understand what the sentence means. Like...it doesn't make sense to me...I don't know, it's just confusing, damnit!" he finished, embarrassed. Antonio thought about this for a while, then grinned and grabbed a piece of lined paper, beginning to scribble down sentences on it.

"What are you doing?" Lovino frowned. "Why are you even in _this class? You're Spanish, aren't you? You already know _everything!" Antonio winked up at him and gave him a sly grin. A look of disbelief slowly settled over Lovino's face. "Wait...are you just taking this class...so you can get an A? And raise your GPA? Seriously?" he asked, and Antonio cleared his throat loudly.

"Of course not, Lovi...I'm just taking this class so I can get an_ A+_." he said with a grin, sliding the sheet of Spanish sentences over to Lovino, who looked at it in horror.

"What the hell does this mean?" he demanded, skimming over the page which was full of Antonio's slanted handwriting.

"It's Spanish. It's your official homework for when I come over to tutor you on Thursday. I want you to memorize them, okay? The more you speak Spanish, the more naturally things will come to you." Lovino scowled at Antonio, who winked at him before stuffing his books back into his bag.

"You bastard! You expect me to me_morize_ all this? You're crazy!"

"You can do it, Lovi." Antonio said simply, standing up as the bell rang. "Gym class!" he said, as if suddenly remembering that they had it next. He looked around quickly before bending low to whisper in Lovino's ear.

"I can't wait to see you undress, Lovi..." he winked again and strolled away before Lovino could hit him. Face burning with mortification, Lovino shoved his papers and textbook into his bag and rushed to his locker.

_Letting Antonio kiss him during breaks was one thing, but __sexual harassment? _

That was going a bit far.

XxXxXxXxXx

"_Seychelles, mon amour, attendez-moi!" _Seychelles turned around, a smile on her face, and paused, waiting for Francis to catch up. He strolled up, kissed her on the cheek, and said 'Good morning'.

Seychelles blushed, her cheek burning where his lips had touched her, and half-heartedly told him off. But really, she wanted to scream: Francis had to be the most _romantic, _lovey-dovey person she'd ever met. He kissed her in the morning, he kissed her at break, at lunch, and after school, _plus _he never failed to call her beautiful or heavenly or adorable in his native language, the language of love.

"How are you, _ma belle?_" he asked her tenderly, sliding a hand around her waist, holding her close as they walked together down the halls.

"I'm okay, _merci. _Are you excited for gym class?" Francis chuckled.

"Ohonhonhonhon...much more excited than usual, since _you _are in my class." he said with a flirtatious wink.

"Oh, please." she said, pushing his arm lightly, but she blushed in spite of herself. As they walked together down the hall, somebody opened a window in a classroom, and a gust of September air blew through the hallway, ruffling their hair. Seychelles was suddenly hit with a faint scent of French cologne. She leaned into France slightly, closing her eyes and sniffing, searching for more of it.

"_Cherie?_" Seychelles looked up sheepishly, to see Francis looking at her oddly. "Er...er...Look! A distraction!" Seychelles cried, pointing wildly to her right. They both stared. At Berwald pulling little Tino into the 'janitor's closet'.

There was a well-deserved awkward silence. Seychelles turned her head slightly to the left as they kept walking towards the gym, breathing deeply. It wasn't like she...was _addicted _to the smell, or anything. It just smelled _so good..._a rather thrilling, intoxicating...addictive scent.

"Um, you smell good." Seychelles blurted as they entered the gym. Francis laughed.

"_Bien sur, cherie. _See you in a sec." he said, strolling into the guys' changing room. Seychelles waved, blushing, then dived into the girls' changeroom. Lili was already in there, talking to Katyusha, smiling and nodding, but her eyes were focused on Katyusha's boobs, which kept bouncing as she talked.

Seychelles laughed to herself and began to change. She was about to put on her Tshirt when there was a thunderous boom, followed by a weird, groaning, cracking sound. She looked around, but nothing seemed out of place. She shrugged and pulled the Tshirt over her head.

She had just gotten it above her head when the sound became a _lot _louder, and was accompanied by a huge whining, scraping sound. She whirled around, but her shirt was over her face so she couldn't see anything.

"What's going on?" she asked, as the other girls began to scream. Seychelles screamed too, and tore the shirt off of her. Flinging it to the ground and spinning around, she saw the wall opposite her was...collapsing.

Quickly.

It fell to the ground with a huge boom, and all the girls stared at it. Then they raised their gazes to the room the door had fallen from. About thirty half-dressed guys stared back at them.

There was a moment of complete and utter silence.

And then the girls were screaming, and the guys were whistling or yelling, and Hungary's camera was clicking, and she was whistling too, and Vash had tossed Lili his jacket, blushing like mad. Francis was catcalling, taking in the view, Spain and Lovino weren't even paying attention, Natasha was darkly observing her older brother, and Alfred's eyes would _not _leave Katyusha's chest.

The situation was under control in roughly eight minutes, however, when the teachers came in, ordering everybody out so they could asses the damage of the wall. In a state of total disbelief, all the students were chased out of the changerooms. Some were lucky enough to grab a coat or a skirt on their way out, but most of them were shoved out the door as they were.

Seychelles couldn't believe what was happening: all the boys and all the girls stood in the gym, most of them in their underwear, or topless (in the boys' cases), embarrassed and vaguely trying to cover themselves. Seychelles was wearing her gym shorts, stockings, bra, and a hoodie she had snatched on the way out.

She was one of the lucky ones, though: Natasha was only wearing her underwear. She was near-tears, hiding behind Bella, who was _almost _fully dressed, aside from her shoes. Antonio was topless, but he didn't count: he seemed to be much more at home _without _his shirt than with it. In fact, most of the boys were just topless, except for Lovino, Feliciano, and Prussia, who were all only wearing boxers.

Hungary was only wearing her lacy black underwear, but Roderich had given her his jacket, and Gilbert had an arm protectively around her in case any other guys wanted to take a look. She didn't seem to mind much, though: she was busy taking pictures 'for prosperity'. Natasha was alright, wearing her collared shirt and skirt, but Lili was so embarrassed, it looked like she wanted to faint.

She was wearing her lacy pink bra and matching underwear with bunnies on them, and _nothing else, _except for Vash's jacket, which was much too big for her and wouldn't do up anyways. Seychelles walked over to her and hugged her, if only to cover her front.

"It's okay, Lili, nobody's looking..." Seychelles said soothingly, patting her poor friend on the back. Although that wasn't entirely true: Seychelles happened to notice a few boys slyly sneaking looks at Lili. Vash was one of them, but he would blush bright red, and seem to scold himself whenever he did so.

As Seychelles held her friend, her eyes travelled perversely around the room, vaguely searching. She looked over at Antonio, who seemed to be teasing poor Lovino, then at Mathias, then over Kiku (who didn't look to be in a much better state than Lili, even though he was wearing a shirt) who was huddled with Yao on the outside of the circle.

Finally, Seychelles spotted Arthur and Francis. They seemed to be arguing about a rather embarrassing subject, because they were both blushing. But Seychelles didn't pay attention to _that. _She was more focused on their toned chests, strong shoulders, and muscular yet wiry builds.

"Hey, can I join you?" Seychelles looked up to see Meimei, who was wearing a lace tanktop and shorts.

"Of course." Seychelles said with a smile, and they started a group hug. There was a story circulating about how Alfred, the strongest guy in the school, had tripped over a bench and banged into the wall...making it fall down.

Frankly, Seychelles wasn't sure if it was _possible _for that to happen, but that was the most popular version of the story so far. Finally, the teachers came out of the changing rooms.

"Okay, gang. It seems that the wall had been weakening for some time, due to a leaky pipe from the boy's bathroom upstairs. Unfortunately, this means that the changing rooms will be out of order for quite some time, so... We've decided to start our compulsory dance unit early! You don't have to change for this unit, so the situation won't encumber us!"

Many students groaned, but some looked cheerful. The gym teacher talking continued, "For today, we're just going to play a few games. Hopefully, everybody's somewhat decent...Get in a circle, everybody!" he called, blowing a whistle.

Seychelles couldn't believe it: he was expecting everybody to _play _in their _underwear! _She felt Lili's knees give way slightly, and she half-carried her friend over to the floor, where Lili took five minutes trying to find a seated position that didn't involve her crossing her legs or having any part of her torso showing out of the much-too-big jacket.

"Alright, guys. We're going to start off with, 'Honey give me a smile'. I used to play it with my highschool...but back then it was 'Honey gimme a kiss.'" The teacher guffawed at his 'joke', but nobody else realized he wasn't serious.

"Okay, does everybody know how to play?" A 'yes' came from everybody.

"Alright, who's going to start?" Bella put up her hand.

She stood up, and walked to the middle of the circle. She was the most-clothed out of all the girls, so she was pretty confident. She looked around the circle for a while before walking towards her brother.

"She's actually shy around guys, you know." Hungary whispered to Lili and Seychelles, who were surprised. "She loves to tease them, but she can't take anything seriously or else she gets really nervous and embarrassed." Hungary said, and Seychelles smiled, watching as she sat down on Abel's lap. She grinned at him.

"Honey, I love you. Won't you give me a smile?" Abel kept an extraordinarily straight face as he replied, "Honey, you know I love you, but I just can't smile." Bella clambered off of him and sighed, looking around again.

Seychelles swore quietly under her breath when Bella walked towards her. Lili moved away and hugged MeiMei instead as Bella sat down on Seychelles' lap.

"Honey, I love you. Won't you give me a smile?" she asked. Seychelles took a breath.

"Honey, I love you too..." she broke down and laughed. Crap. With a sigh, Seychelles stood up, making sure the Hoodie (she didn't even know who it belonged to) covered everything, and walked to the center of the circle. She looked around, unsure who to...er...sit on. She would normally, of course, go to Lili, but the poor girl was _completely _embarrassed, and Seychelles wasn't that heartless.

But then again, she didn't know many people yet... She bit her lip, and looked between Francis and Arthur. She walked towards them (they were sitting next to each other...weird, seeing as they hated each other's guts).

Both of them smiled, Arthur shyly, France wickedly. Seychelles bit her lip, did Eenie Meenie Minie Mo in her head, and sat down on France. He put his arms around her, and she tried to ignore them.

"Honey, I love you, won't you...give me a smile?" she asked haltingly, trying to keep a straight face.

"Honey, I love you too, but I just can't smile." Damnit, he didn't crack a smirk! Seychelles sighed, got off, and sat gingerly on Arthur's lap. His ears turned bright red.

"Um, Honey, I love you, won't you give me a smile?" she asked.

"Honey, I love you too, but I just can't smile." _Seriously! _Seychelles scowled, stood up, and looked around the circle again. After four minutes, she had tried Hungary, Bella, MeiMei, Roderich, Alfred, _and _Mathias, and none of them had cracked a smile!

Seychelles sighed, and grudgingly turned towards Lili, who jumped and began shaking her head. Lili was the one person left that Seychelles knew...not only that, but she also knew that Lili would laugh immediately. She mouthed 'sorry', and sat down on Lili's lap. Immediately, her friend began to turn red, biting her lip.

"Honey...I love you...won't you give me a-" Lili burst into laughter.

"That'll do." Seychelles said with a grin and sat down. Lili crawled to her knees, wrapping the jacket around her, and finally got to her feet, shuffling into the middle of the circle. Seychelles immediately felt bad: Lili looked like a scared deer in headlights.

She turned around, looking around the circle four times before finally shuffling towards Vash, blushing like crazy. She sat down awkwardly, trying desperately to keep the jacket covering every inch of her as she folded herself into his lap. Vash also seemed to blush, trying not to look directly at Lili, as if she would blind him.

"Honey...I...I love you! Won't you...give me a smile?" Lili asked in a small voice. Vash stared at her. It seemed like there was an infinitesimal pause, where Lili begged him with her eyes and he nodded. Then Vash smiled.

"He smiled! He smiled! You're up, Vash!" Alfred cheered, and Lili slid onto the floor gratefully as Vash stood up, his dark green boxers vibrant against his pale skin. Lili looked much happier. Until she realized that she was sitting between Roderich and Ivan.

_Then _she looked scared.

The game continued for ten more minutes, during which Hungary was sat on by both Roderich and Gilbert, but didn't smile for either, Kiku couldn't make _anybody _smile until he sat on Feliciano, who immediately trotted off to sit on Ludwig.

The funniest one was when Antonio, who was _always _smiling, sat down on Lovino, who was _always _scowling. It took him five minutes, but Antonio finally made Lovino (who had been blushing fire-engine red from the moment that Antonio's topless form had collapsed into his lap) crack a tiny smirk, making everybody gasp, since he didn't even laugh during funny movies.

Finally, the gym teachers intervened, and got them all going playing "I tell a lie." They were going in clockwise order, starting with Alfred.

"I eat four hamburgers every day, I've never kissed a boy, and I've flown an airplane." he said, crossing his arms. After a couple guesses, it was revealed that the first sentence was a lie: he actually only ate _two _hamburgers every day. Ivan went next.

"I sleep with a faucet, my littlest sister likes me a lot, and I have a scar on my wrist from breaking a bottle of Vodka." after three guesses, it turned out that he really got a scar on his _hand _from breaking a bottle of Vodka. Seychelles grinned as she noticed Lili shooting Natasha furtive looks. Antonio went next.

"I've kissed more than ten people, I have a tattoo on my ass, and I once got my legs waxed in Mexico." His was one of the hardest ones, since it seemed highly likely that they were _all _true. After a couple guesses, he said that he never got his legs waxed. Hungary was next.

"I wore boxers until I was thirteen, I've hit people with frying pans, and I can't swim." Gilbert got hers instantly, shouting out that she wore boxers until she was _fourteen. _Finally, it was Seychelles' turn. She cleared her throat, and tried to think of a couple unbelievable facts about herself. It surprisingly wasn't so hard.

"I have a wall-to-wall aquarium in my room, I was in a commercial when I was four, and I've eaten chicken-flavoured popsicles." Most people guessed the aquarium, or the popsicles, but Meimei guessed the commercial, and Seychelles nodded. A few turns later, Lili looked around and realized that it was her next. She frowned, thinking, and then opened her mouth.

"I...I'm in the police files, I've gone streaking at a World Cup Game, and I got drunk when I was six." Seychelles' jaw dropped: _NOT _what she was expecting. There was a silence in the group, as well: nobody seemed to have considered that Lili might not be the good little girl she looked like. Francis guessed the police files, but that was wrong, and Hungary guessed the streaking one.

To everyone's disbelief (except Vash's, apparently. He seemed to smile like he was thinking 'oh, yeah...that was funny') she said that _that _one was true as well. "You..._didn't _get drunk when you were six?" Bella asked finally, and Lili nodded, saying that it was when she was six and a _half. _

After an awkward silence, where Lili huddled in Vash's jacket and blushed, Gilbert went. Ten people later, it was Vash's turn. He cleared his throat.

"I have a criminal record, I was a dinosaur for Halloween when I was seven, and I...streaked at a World Cup game." he admitted with a faint blush. After a few guesses, he said that the second one was false. Meaning that not only does he have a criminal record, but he streaked at a World Cup game...just like his 'little sister'.

Seychelles stared from him to Lili. They coincidentally..._both _streaked at a World Cup game? The _same _World Cup game? How _old _were they? Not soon enough, the bell rang. The students, grumbling, had to wait while the gym teachers went in to get all their stuff.

Then they had to _change _in the middle of the gym before they could have lunch.

"That's it. I doubt I'll ever be embarrassed again by public nudity. What could be worse than _that!_" Lili exclaimed as she and Seychelles walked out together.

XxxXxXx

_Seychelles, mon amour, attendez-moi! _**Seychelles, my love, wait for me!**

_...ma belle. _**...my lovely**

_Cherie _**Darling**

***by the way, I'm getting some of the less well-known human names from online sites, so if they're wrong (Mathias, Abel, etc) please tell me. I might change them, if they're really really really wrong. I think Bella's right though, because I've never seen her called anything else...anyways, just apologizing if they're _seriously _wrong.***


	6. LIEBE

LOVE, Absolutely

_...I might drive myself insane if those lips aren't speaking my name... _

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><p>So, here's the next chapter! I promise I'll continue the LietPol part of it soonish...I just can't concentrate on them for some reason! X boo...anyways, I've decided that Romano and Spain will probably...have the longest chapters...just because I love them! :DD please review!<p>

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><p>Lovino lay on his bed, the 'homework' that Antonio had given him spread before him on the blankets. Even though he was listening to his favourite music, he was really annoyed. Sure, he didn't like to do homework, but the real reason that he was less than cheerful was that he was thinking about Antonio. And actually <em>doing<em> the homework that the stupid Spanish bastard had set him.

He scowled and rolled over, trying not to wonder how he would ever live this down. He was doing _extra _Spanish homework, not because he wanted to, but because he didn't want Antonio to be disappointed. With an angry sigh, Lovino grabbed the paper of phrases he'd been memorizing (for absolutely no conceivable reason, by the way) and skimmed it over.

He'd memorized all of them so far, but there was one word in the last phrase that was _really _bugging him. He grinned as he decided to disobey Antonio and look it up online. He walked across to his computer (well really, he shared it with Feliciano, who never used it) and opened a new tab. In the search box on Google, he typed in 'English definition of cuerpazo'.

After a few seconds, he clicked on a link at some answers site, and read the definition. Lovino switched off the computor, his face bright red, and grabbed the phone off his table. He dialed the number he had memorized when he was eight or so, and stormed down the stairs, pouring himself a huge glass of milk to calm himself down. Antonio picked up after two rings.

"Lovi! What's up?" Evidentially the bastard had caller ID. Lovino didn't waste any time with pleasantries, not that he would have normally.

"Stupid bastard! What the hell were you thinking, getting me to memorize your stupid perverted Spanish sentences? When the hell would you say '_sexy_' in a reasonable sentence! Only _you _would do something so completely weird! I'm just glad I looked up _cuerpazo, _otherwise I might never have found out!" he roared into the phone. He heard Antonio's laughter from the other end and scowled deeper still, leaning back against the kitchen counter.

"Honestly...stupid asshole." Lovino muttered, having run out of steam. Somehow the sound of Antonio's laughter seemed to have calmed him down a little. _Probably because he used to laugh me to sleep,_ Lovino thought darkly as he took a gulp from his glass.

"Lovi, I told you not to look the words up!" Antonio reproved him playfully. Lovino let out a funny kind of strangled 'Hah!', making Antonio laugh again.

"But if you looked up _cuerpazo, _that means that...no way. You did your homework?" Lovino grimaced at Antonio's eager voice, and didn't say anything, his pride preventing him, but a sigh escaped his lips and Antonio knew.

"I'm really happy, Lovi. Were you thinking of me when you did it?" Okay, going too far. Lovino blushed as Antonio's teasing voice stabbed him right in his Italian ego.

"N-no! Stupid Antonio! Why the fuck would I think of _you? _You're so dumb-"

"You're blushing, Lovi."

"N-No way! No! I am so _not, _you stupid-" Antonio's laugh interrupted Lovino's angry protests, and once again lessened his annoyance.

"You are! You so are." Antonio laughed again, and Lovino took another determined gulp of milk, slamming the glass down. He couldn't concentrate any more, and to tell the truth, he'd sort of forgotten why he called.

Half an hour later, they were to meet at the park just behind Lovino's house. As he sat on a swing, waiting for Antonio, Lovi was seriously wondering when and why he had agreed to it. As he reflected on the rest of their phone conversation, he couldn't remember _ever _saying something like 'meet me at the park', or 'I want to see you'.

So, of course, Antonio had just invited himself over. Dummy. Lovino's eyes widened as two hands suddenly held the chains of his swing, and Antonio was leaning over him, smiling as always, his eyes and hair brilliantly lit up by the sunset.

"Hey, Lovi!" he said happily, leaning down even further to kiss the scowling boy's cheek.

"Don't surprise me like tha-!" Lovino began angrily, turning to look up at Antonio and accidentally putting his mouth in the way of Antonio's kiss. Naturally, even though it was a mistake, Antonio didn't stop kissing him. Lovino pushed himself away, blushing.

"Don't do that all of a sudden, bastard!" he said angrily, rubbing his mouth. Antonio laughed, and the sound echoed in the empty streets nearby.

"You're so cute, Lovi." he said affectionately, bypassing the swing and ruffling Lovino's hair, inadvertently touching his one curly strand. Lovino immediately flinched, and his blush darkened as Antonio looked down at him, amusement obvious in his green eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. This feels good, right?" _Damn bastard...he didn't fucking forget! He remembered for like, nine years or something! _Lovino thought bitterly as he looked away from Antonio, crossed his arms and muttered something rude.

Antonio looked at him for a moment before he took Lovino's hand and led him over to the monkey bars. Lovino followed reluctantly, but of course he _wasn't_ kind of watching Antonio's ass as he walked. (he was) Because that would be weird. (hot) When they reached the monkey bars, Antonio easily hoisted himself up onto them. He sat on top of them, and gestured for Lovino to do the same. Lovi snorted.

"Aren't there any kids around?" he asked, knowing already that there weren't.

"Nope. Just us." Antonio said, hardly hiding his enthusiasm for the situation. Lovino looked up at the monkey bars, highly doubting that he could get up as easily as Antonio, due to his serious lack in physical prowess. But then again, he also didn't want to look like a total dork. Grabbing the bars over his head, he swung himself up on top of them (not without some difficulty).

Awkwardly, he avoided Antonio's gaze, looking down at his bare feet. His untied Converse had fallen off on the way up. Antonio smiled at him, then looked up towards the setting sun. He'd seen a lot of sunsets in his life, but to him, this one seemed like the most beautiful of them all. Lovino, sensing that Antonio wasn't going to talk for a while, shifted slightly closer and leaned against him, looking away and blushing. When Antonio looked down at him in surprise, he scowled, still blushing.

"It's just cold, stupid." he said in irritation, but Antonio, smiling and turning away, sensed affection hidden deeply in his words. And that made him smile even more.

Lovino opened his eyes. The sunlight was streaming through the window next to his bed, warming him to an unwanted extreme. He sighed and shut his eyes again, trying to remember the nice dream he'd been having. He lay still for a few moments, thinking hard, but in the end he gave up. He rolled over and sat up. And looked down at Antonio, asleep next to him. He blinked.

Lovino scrambled out of bed with a yell of surprise, staring at the Spanish boy whose feet were sticking out the end of his bed -_Lovino's _bed. Feliciano woke up and, rubbing his head, looked over the side of the top of the bunkbed they shared.

"What's wrong, big bro?" he asked, blinking at Lovino, who was shocked that Feli had not noticed that something _was completely and utterly _wrong when he had entered the room the night before.

"A...Antonio's in my bed!" Lovino asked, the words strangled in his throat. Feli nodded.

"Yeah! Isn't it cool?" Lovino stared at his younger brother, too shocked for words. It was like he was on a different wavelength than Feliciano: Antonio in his bed! Vs Antonio in his bed! Isn't this scary, horrible, and scandalizing? Vs Isn't this cool? Lovino took a shaky breath and tried vaguely to calm down.

"Why is he here?" he asked in a would-be-calm voice. Feliciano jumped down from the bunkbed, thankfully wearing boxers, and looked at his Lovino curiously.

"He slept over, remember? You guys were out late, so he called his house and then he stayed the night here." As his brother spoke, Lovino began to remember this scenario..._vaguely. _

"So...why is he in _my _bed?" he asked slowly, positive that he would never have _willingly _let Antonio sleep in the same bed as him. Feliciano rubbed his head.

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. You're such an uptight, cranky loner, I was pretty surprised that he didn't sleep with _me._ But when I asked him after you were asleep, he said he persuaded you somehow. Oh well...ve~..."

Lovino stared at his brother, feeling pretty darn offended (uptight cranky loner? Uptight...sure...cranky...okay, fine..._loner?) _but mostly stressed: how the _hell _had Antonio persuaded him to- Lovino turned around and exited the room, leaving Feliciano watching him leave.

Lovino stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom, staring at himself in horror as thoughts of exactly _how _Antonio had 'persuaded' him. Had he...or maybe he had... or, God forbid, had he...! His thoughts were interrupted as the bathroom door opened and Antonio walked in, looking _very _sleepy. He looked at Lovino in surprise.

"Hi Lovi... what are you doing in here?" Lovino frowned: that's kind of a personal question to ask in a _bathroom. _Antonio clearly had not lost his knack of being completely oblivious to social politesse.

"Nothing." he answered lamely, and Antonio nodded slowly, yawning. "...did you sleep okay?" Lovino asked grudgingly, and Antonio smiled at him. Although he was tired, his eyes certainly sparked with energy.

"It's not like I'dsleep badly next to _you, _Lovi." he said, as he stepped forward and grabbed Lovino in a hug.

"No! Let go! Lemme go, stupid-" Lovino protested, his eyes widening, a blush creeping across his face as he felt Antonio's completely topless abdomen press against his own. Antonio let him go and backed up.

"You're right Lovi, I shouldn't hug you before I shower." he chided himself, ruffling his hair.

"That's not why-" Lovino began, but he gave up. "Fine, okay. If you want to shower, there's shampoo and stuff over there." he waved vaguely towards the shower and walked out of the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Lovino walked out of his room fully dressed, holding Feliciano's homework. _Stupid Feli forgot it up here...why does he get so damn excited when he's gonna __meet that stupid potato bastard before school? Honestly, he's so..._ Lovino's thoughts were cut off as the door to the bathroom opened suddenly. Antonio stepped out, accompanied by a cloud of steam.

"Hey, Lovi." he said, grinning. Lovino just stood here, his eyes unwillingly travelling up Antonio's dripping body. He was wearing nothing except a hort white towel that was riding _very _low on his hips. His hair was damp, but messy as if it had just been towelled dry. Drops of water were all over him still, sliding down his tanned, toned chest...

"Feli? Are you there? Or is your grandpa here?"

"I'm here! Grandpa stayed out last night. Why?"

"Um...I think Lovi fainted..."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Hey...Vash?" Vash turned to look down at Lili. She was blushing a little, but he understood why this time; she had never called him by his first name to his face before.

"..Yes?" he said, hesitantly, but he smiled anyways; it was nice that Lili was beginning to get more comfortable with him. She looked at her shoes for a moment, then back up at him.

"Are you really going to take me to that party?" Vash blinked, surprised, and paused before continuing to walk.

"If you want to go, I'll take you." he said, wondering why Lili, who was generally shy at social gatherings, would want to go to such a party.

"...Do you know what it will be like? ...Do you think there will be a lot of people there?" she asked, and Vash smiled to himself; she was nervous, as he thought.

"It'll be okay. Alfred has a lot of friends, so I'm sure that there will be a lot of people, but I think it will be fun. And don't worry about it, if you don't like it, we can easily just go home. Alfred lives five minutes away from us." he said, looking down at Lili, who nodded and smiled shyly up at him.

Ignoring the insistent pounding of his heart (probably...from gym...two hours ago...), Vash, just as shyly, took her hand, at the same time loudly saying 'who knows what kind of creeps could be around...we'd better stay close together' Despite his pathetic excuse, he smiled, ashamed of himself, when Lili took his hand and squeezed it slightly. The light of the setting sun lit the park as they walked through it, heading for home.

"Vash..." Lili said quietly as they passed the swingset.

"Yes?" Lili was watching three kids from their school sitting together on a bench. She smiled, recognizing Ivan with his sisters, Natalia and Katyusha, cuddling his arms and not saying a word.

"...Do you think we'll always be together?" she asked finally, hardly aware of what she was saying; she was daydreaming, trying to remember the name of a song she liked. Vash's eyes widened in surprise as he led Lili out of the park towards the path that led to their house.

He wondered what Lili meant by that; did she mean would they be _together _forever? Or just together, like...brother and sister, together? Or maybe she just meant that they'd be friends...? With a sigh at his own paranoia, Vash half-turned to smile at Lili. She didn't seem to be paying attention, again (she often daydreamed), but he replied quietly anyways.

"I won't leave you." he murmured, and turned back, facing the path ahead.

Lili finally remembered some of the lyrics she was thinking of; _An enchanted moment; and it sees me through. It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you...' _

"I'm sorry...I didn't hear you!" she said suddenly, looking at Vash. "Do you think you could repeat that?" she asked, ashamed that she hadn't been paying attention. Vash blushed and mumbled something like 'nevermind...'

"No, I'm sorry! I want to know!" Lili said, starting to laugh a little bit.

"You're blushing! Are you sick?" she asked, and Vash cleared his throat, trying not to laugh himself, but Lili couldn't see why.

"Yes, I'm a little allergic to...oak trees." he said, gesturing towards the trees in the park behind them. Lili nodded, but secretly she was confused; they'd walked past those same trees every day for almost four months (since she arrived in the neighbourhood), and he'd never been allergic before.

"Hey Vash?"

"Yes?"

"...how old were we at that World Cup game again?"

"...five, wasn't it? You'd just come for a visit...just two weeks, and we went together with our parents..."

"Right! ...your parents don't have any pictures of that, do they?"

"...Yes they do. They bring them out every Christmas."

"Oh no..."

"I know. I know."

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><p>Hope you liked it! :D<p> 


	7. SZERELEM

LOVE, Absolutely

Ellie sighed and lay back in her bubble bath. It was pretty late in the morning to be having a bath, but she had already skipped first class, so missing second class wouldn't really be so bad either. She'd told her mother that she was sick, and because her mom was so busy in the mornings, she'd just said not to blow up the house and left Ellie alone.

Elisabeta had immediately turned on the hot water tap in the bath, collected up all of her Elle magazines, and her cd player. She'd already listened all the way through the Beatles, Dido, and Boy George. She had just grabbed her mello collection of cds. She had wanted to think during her bath, and honestly, it's kinda hard to think with somebody yelling '_Die mothafucka Die!' _in your ear.

She curled her toes and closed her eyes as Mello Yellow started playing. She was beginning to feel impatient with herself; she'd been soaking up bubbles for the past two hours, and had re-run the bath once already, but her mind was a complete blank. With a sigh, she reached over the side of the bath and fumbled with her pile of cds.

After splashing the cd player slightly twice, she managed to switch cds to her 'boyfriend' mix. As '_Check Yes Juliet' _started playing, Ellie sighed and blew at the bubbles that were floating over her chest. If she was honest with herself, really truly honest, she knew exactly why she was feeling so mad at herself. To continue trying to be happy with Gilbert and Roderich just as she had for the past two years was impossible.

For Ellie, it meant the incredible stress of being pressured every day to choose between the two. She wasn't as superficial and self-centered as to think that Roderich and Gilbert wanted her to be their girlfriend; she just wanted to be able to choose between them, because they hated each other too much for all three of them to be friends.

Ever since the huge rumour in grade eight that Gilbert, her absolute best friend, had a crush on her, and then the arrival of Roderich, the personification of everything she dreamed about the same year, Ellie had avoided thought. She'd run away from 'do you love him?' quizzes, Valentine's day she was always 'sick', and if there was any mistletoe at Christmas, she'd go the other way.

But this was her last year in highschool, and it could also be the last year she'd spend with both of them, and Ellie had finally dedicated time to thinking. Thinking and thinking and thinking about Gilbert. About Roderich. About herself. About everyone and everything, in fact. Not that Ellie was superficial in any way, but she never thought deeply about anything.

In school, answers to questions were easy for her, or were easily found. She never bothered with any soul-shattering questions to answer alone, because they scared her. _Rolling in the deep's _strong beat began pounding gently out of the old speakers, and Ellie let down her hair with a sigh, letting it swirl around her in the soapy water. _The scars of your love remind me of us, they keep me thinking that we almost had it all, the scars of your love, they leave me breathless, I can't help feeling we could have had it __all..._

Ellie closed her eyes.

Roderich. She bit her lip, remembering the way he'd immediately looked to her his first day at school. He'd started calling her 'Lady' right off the bat, and had respected her lovingly ever since. He was everything she dreamed of for her future. It might sound pretty selfish, but Elli often played her '_Golddigger' _playlist when shopping.

Just listening to _'Whatever you like' _would make her sigh with longing, and '_Glamourous', 'Material Girl', _and _'Can't buy me Love' _always made her dream of money. To be honest, Ellie knew that she wasn't the only one who dreamed of money. Her childhood had not been the most pampered by far, mostly because of the divorce. So Ellie had spent her years dreaming of 'the good life', and playing with Gilbert, who was the rough-and-tumble exact _opposite _of her money-centered fantasies.

Gilbert. She smiled, remembering all the times she'd beaten him up for calling her girly. The smile widened as the memories of him coming over and sitting next to her bed, talking and talking and talking about anything the days that she was sick. Seriously, exactly how many friends do that?

"And he was never invited over, either, he just barged in..." Ellie muttered, reaching to switch the song.

"ELLS! Why aren't you at school! Are you sick!"

Speak of the devil, and even in the most inconvenient of situations, he shall appear.

_Picture this, we were both butt-naked, banging on the bathroom floor. How could I forget that I had given her an extra key? All the time she was standing there she never took her eyes off me..._

Shaggy, now I know how you felt.

Gilbert had burst into the bathroom, his uniform open and flapping, his hair messy from running, his expression completely shocked. Ellie had instinctively brought her knees up to her chest. Thank God the bubbles were still thick and opaque. There was a beat of relative silence as the cd skipped to the next song.

"Gilbert..." Ellie reached for a towel as her friend turned around, already protecting his head, bracing himself for the impact he knew all to well was coming.

"STUPID!" Ellie yelled as she hit him with the first thing she touched -the toilet plunger.

Ten minutes later found them sitting in Ellie's room, drinking Cream Soda and watching _Manhunter. _Ellie had changed into her Paddington Bear jammies, and Gilbert was sporting a neon-pink bandaid on his head.

"So, why aren't you at school again?" he asked finally. Ellie nudged him.

"You're not at school either."

"Doesn't matter. I'm too awesome for that school, anyways."

"Naturally." Ellie said in a dry tone that made Gilbert laugh. Ellie leaned against him with a sigh.

"I just wanted to think, I guess." she said.

"Why the hell would you want to do _that? _It's unhealthy -that's what they're teaching us at school." Gilbert joked. Ellie laughed.

Just talking and laughing like this were things that she never did with Roderich...but then again, _Gilbert _had never offered to take her to the opera...

xXxXxXxXxXx

Matthew leaned back against his locker, sucking on his maple syrup lollipop. School had been over for twenty minutes, and Alfred _still _hadn't met him like he'd promised. Matthew sighed and slid down to sit down on the floor. Not that he was annoyed with his brother...but Alfred did this _every _day. As if he forgot that Matthew was waiting...and waiting...

Matthew shook his head and plugged in his headphones. As Hedley began pulsing in his ears, he sucked thoughtfully on his lollipop, considering Alfred. Ever since they'd been born, Alfred had come first. He'd been born first (a coincidence!), he'd learned to walk first (all lies! Matt was just in a different room than the camera...), he'd learned to talk first (not true! Matty just had a soft voice...), and then he'd been able to do _everything _better...at least it seemed that way.

"_Salut. Qu'est-ce que tu fais, Mattieu?" _Matt looked up and saw Francis standing in front of him, leaning with one hand against his locker.

"Hey, Francis. I'm not doing much." he said quietly, bending his toes in his red Converse.

"_Non, non, Matty. La Fran__ç__ais, la Fran__ç__ais. La langue la plus belle au monde, n'est-ce pas?" _Matty half-smiled.

"_D'accord, d'accord. Tu es vraiment s__é__rieux __à__ propos de ta langue, hein?" _Matthew asked the blonde boy who had now sat down next to him.

"_Ouai...O__ù__ est Alfred?" _he asked, and Matthew rolled his eyes.

"You're not the first person to ask that. I don't know where he is." he said, switching back to English. He had always been better at expression irritation in his second language. Francis nodded knowingly -he was the only person in the school who knew exactly how shadowed Matthew felt by his brother.

"_Tu n'as pas besoin d'attendre avec moi, Francis. N'as-tu pas une dizaine des filles __à__ baiser, hein?O__ù est la fille...Seychelles? Elle est ta p'tite amie, n'est pas?" _Matty asked, fixing Francis a look with his violet-blue eyes. Francis laughed and punched Matty lightly on his arm.

"_Bien sûr, Matty. Mais non, Seychelles n'est pas ma petite amie, et je veux parler avec toi. C'est une surprise que quelqu'un veut parler avec toi, pas ton frère?" _Matty sighed.

"Well, I guess so. Alfred's having a party on Saturday at our house, so everybody keeps RSVPing _me _by mistake. I guess I _have _to go, since it's at my house..." Francis looked at Matthew calculatingly for a moment or two, before grinning.

"_Qu'est-ce que tu dites se je te démande d'aller avec moi?" _Matty blinked.

"Go where with you?" he asked, confused.

"The party, Matty. I'll be there for you, and if you get bored we can go to my place." he said with a wink. Matty blushed (he was used to Francis' perversions and come-ons, but that one caught him by surprise) and frowned.

"What about Seychelles? You told me before that you were going to ask her out." Francis tugged on the end of his hair and frowned a little.

"Well, I was going to...but then there's Arthur, and it's also _compliquée _because we're friends...besides, I think she's going to the party with her friends. She said she didn't want to go with a boy, anyways." he said, and Matty took his lollipop out of his mouth, looking seriously at Francis.

"Well, I guess it would be nice to hang with you at the party...but don't...do anything, okay? My mom already thinks you're weird." he warned. Francis smirked at him, leaning a little closer.

"What if she doesn't see it?" he asked in a husky voice, pressing his lips to Matty's maple-syrupy ones.

"...so you're coming Saturday, right?"

"Well, yeah! Thanks for inviting me! I'll be going with Lili and...huh!"

"What?...Woah, Matty?"

"Alfred! ...Seychelles!"

"..._Francis...?_"

"..._Seychelles, ma chérie, _what's up?"

Matthew felt like dying.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Salut. Qu'est-ce que tu fais, Mattieu? = _**Hey. What are you doing, Matthew?**

_Non, non, Matty. La Fran__ç__ais, la Fran__ç__ais. La langue la plus belle au monde, n'est-ce pas?" = _**No, No, Matty. French, French! The most beautiful language in the world, right?**_  
><em>

"_D'accord, d'accord. Tu es vraiment s__é__rieux __à__ propos de ta langue, hein?" _**= Okay, okay. You're really serious about your language, huh?  
><strong>

"_Ouai...O__ù__ est Alfred?" _**= Yeah...where's Alfred?**

"_Tu n'as pas besoin d'attendre avec moi, Francis. N'as-tu pas une dizaine des filles __à__ baiser? O__ù est la fille...Seychelles? Elle est ta p'tite amie, n'est pas?" _**=You don't have to wait with me, Francis. Don't you have a dozen girls to kiss? Where's that girl...Seychelles? She's your girlfriend, right?**

"_Bien sûr, Matty. Mais non, Seychelles n'est pas ma petite amie, et je veux parler avec toi. C'est une surprise que quelqu'un veut parler avec toi, pas ton frère?" _**=Of course, Matty. But no, Seychelles isn't my girlfriend, and I want to talk to you. It's a surprise that someone whats to talk to you, not your brother?**

"_Qu'est-ce que tu dites se je te démande d'aller avec moi?" _=** What would you say if I asked you to go with me?**

* * *

><p>Aaaaaand there we go! LietPol will definitely be in the next chapter. I'm having some serious trouble sticking to pairings! GAAH! I was going to have FrSey or something...but then I remembered my own baby country, Matty...and now there's Alfred...argh! not only that, but I recently have taking an obscene liking to PrusLili! how would I explain that to Vash!<p>

...anyways, hpe you liked it, R&R!


	8. LÁSKA

**Láska**

* * *

><p>Seychelles flopped down onto the sofa. Lili stood at the kitchen counter, fixing her a strong cup of coffee.<p>

"...and that's the story." Seychelles finished with a big sigh. Lili smiled sympathetically as Seychelles got up to sit at the counter with her.

"Thank you." she said gratefully.

"So...now you think Francis is bi?" Lili surmised, biting into a cookie. Seychelles sighed and shook her head.

"I don't know. Either way, I don't want to ask him about it...it might get awkward. And he's become a really good friend to me, so I don't want to lose him..." Lili nodded sympathetically.

"Oh, Seychelles, I forgot!" she suddenly exclaimed, looking up at the clock on the wall.

"What?" Seychelles asked, perplexed, as Lili began hunting around for her English homework.

"I promised to help Lovino with his English project. The teacher kind of volunteered me to, because I'm in his class, and this house is closest to his." she said, digging in her backpack. Seychelles smiled.

"That's okay, Lili. I should go anyways, Mama wants me to help her make dinner." She got up from her stool, chugged the rest of the coffee, thanked Lili, hugged her, and left. Not four minutes later, the doorbell rang again.

Lili opened it to see Lovino standing awkwardly, looking kind of embarrassed, but mostly bothered at having to come over to the house of a girl he didn't know at all.

"Um, please come in..." Lili nervously hung up his coat and showed him over to the table where her English homework was sitting.

"...thanks for doing this." Lovino muttered, and Lili smiled and nodded.

"No problem. Now...what did you need help with?" she asked, shyly taking a look at his homework. There were doodles all over the margins.

"You really like Spanish stuff, huh?" Lili asked with a smile, noticing the Spanish flag on one side, roughly coloured with pens, tomatoes, bulls, and toreadors. Lovino immediately turned red.

"Uh, no- that's not it. Um...Antonio took my paper. He's Spanish, and that's why there's stupid stuff on it." he said, not meeting Lili's eyes. She didn't say anything, but she kind of wondered if he was lying. Not that he'd have a reason to, of course, but...

"Okay. So, do you need me to explain something?" she asked him, and he nodded.

"Um, yeah, could you explain about...Animal Farm? The book? I mean, I read it, but it's so damn confusing that I kind of failed the test, so..." Lili smiled.

"Okay. Well, I guess I can explain the general thing about it...Animal Farm is an allegorical story-"

"What's 'allegorical'?"

"It means like the whole thing represents something else, in a kind of parody. Like if you took something like...history of the world. And then you decided to write a story about it. Then you change the names, so instead of, say, the 100 years war between England and France, you'd have a big fight between Arthur and Francis, two 'countries' who just don't get along. Does that make a little sense?" she asked, worried that her explanation was too complicated. Lovino frowned.

"So...the whole thing represents something else? So...like, instead of an Olympic race between France, England, Russia, and Spain, it would be a race between Francis, Arthur, Ivan, and Antonio? And then if the British guy won, Arthur would win?" he asked.

"Yup! Like that." Lili said, biting into a cookie. "So, Animal Farm is a huge allegory of the Russian Revolution. Remember how the animals all revolted against Mr Jones and drove him out?" Lovino nodded, and Lili grinned.

"Well, that's how the people drove out the Tzar of Russia. And then all the characters in the book, like Napoleon, Boxer, and Benjamin, they all represent either specific people, or a population of people during that time." Lovino frowned and looked at her.

"So...who do the sheep represent? I mean, they don't do anything except blindly follow anything Napoleon says, and chant that weird 'Four legs good, Two legs bad' thing." Lili began writing down on a fresh sheet of paper.

"The sheep's characters are pretty hard to understand, but basically they're the masses of people who spread the propaganda."

"What do you mean?" Lovino asked, and Lili began drawing a little picture of all the characters of Animal farm. She drew the sheep, and then drew an arrow from them to Squealer.

"Imagine...you know all those gossip magazines?" she asked, and Lovino nodded, and said that Ellie always looked up her horoscope in them during math. Lili tapped her pencil on the table.

"Let's say that one day, the headline was 'Oprah Winfrey is dying!' Then a load of people see the title, say 'Oh my god, Oprah's dying!', and then go to work, or school, or wherever, and then they tell the other people. Some people won't believe it, but the ones who _do _believe it are like the sheep. They believe everything in the tabloids, and repeat it and repeat it." Lili explained.

"Oh...okay, that makes sense." Lovino said, and wrote 'tabloid believers' under the drawing of the sheep.

After that, they made it through all the characters of Animal Farm before Lili had to use the bathroom. "I'll be back in one second, okay?" Lovino nodded, and she went off to the bathroom.

When she came back, Lovino was at the door, trying to close it, while somebody whose face was shadowed in darkness was trying to force themselves in. Without making a noise, Lili took a broom out of the hall closet, and came up behind Lovino, who was still trying to close the door, muttering angrily to the person.

"Move!" Lili ordered, shoving Lovino out of the way and flinging the door open. The man barely had time to duck before she swung at him with the broom with all her might, kicking him in the shins and telling him to 'stay out of my house!'

"Lili, Lili, stop-" Lovino said, attempting to take the broom away from her.

"No! He was trying to force his way in here!" she said, still hitting and swinging away with the broom.

"Lili! Ow- It's Antonio! I'm a friend -Ow- of Lovino's! Ow-" Lili dropped the broom.

"Antonio! What...what are you doing?" Lili asked, staring at the boy in front of her, who she could now clearly see was _not _a burglar.

"I just wanted to say hi," he said sheepishly, rubbing his head.

"I'm so sorry..." Lili apologized, flustered and embarrassed. "I've got a first aid kit, if you need it...I'm so sorry!" she said, feeling like she might cry; she'd get in trouble, and Vash would be mad that she'd attacked somebody...

"It's okay, Lili." Antonio said, smiling at her and stepping inside.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she said, not even daring to meet his eyes. Antonio bent over and kissed her on both cheeks.

"What...are you doing?"

A rather threatening voice came from the hallway. Vash had chosen that precise moment to come downstairs. And now he saw Lili, almost crying, in the arms of Antonio, who was kissing her head, and Lovino standing next to them.

Antonio, who knew that Vash was _extremely _protective of his 'little sister', immediately moved away from her and backed up, looking very repentant, Lovino half-hiding behind him.

"Vash, just let me explain..." he began, but Vash just glared at him, walking forwards towards Lili, who was wiping her eyes.

"What did they do?" he asked, pulling Lili against his chest protectively. Lili shook her head and cleared her throat, having a little trouble speaking because she could smell Vash, and feel his heartbeat through his shirt against her cheek...

"They didn't do anything, I promise." she began, and Vash frowned. "I was just tutoring Lovino for English, like I said I was..." she continued, and Vash nodded, still glaring at the two very guilty-looking boys in front of them. "...and then I went to the bathroom. When I came back, I _thought _I saw a creepy man trying to force his way into the house, with Lovino blocking the door, so I grabbed a broom...and I started hitting him" Vash stared down at Lili, completely shocked that she would do something so reckless.  
>"But...it was actually Antonio, who just wanted to say hi, but Lovino didn't want him to come in because it's not his house, and then...I was really embarrassed because I hit Antonio, and then he kissed (I think it's normal...he's a very pro-touch person) and then that's when you came in. That's what happened, I promise." she said, looking up at Vash whose expression was kind of bemused.<p>

"Well...okay then. But if they do anything to you..." he left the room with an unfinished threat, after shyly patting Lili's shoulder. There was a brief silence before they heard him close his bedroom door. Antonio looked at Lovino, and Lovino looked at the floor.

"I'm sorry about that...he just doesn't want me to get hurt." Lili explained, blushing. Antonio and Lovino nodded. "That's okay. He's a wonderful guy." Antonio said with a grin, before saying that he should leave.

"Bye, Lili. See ya, Lovi..." just before he left out the door, he grabbed Lovi by the shirt and pulled him into a kiss. He was shoved away quickly, and then he left, leaving a _very _awkward silence behind him.

Lili was kind of...dumbfounded. Lovino was so red he could have camouflaged very well in a can of red paint.

"I...I'll get more cookies." Lili said finally, blushing almost as much as Lovino as she tottered into the kitchen. She came back with a platter of biscuits, and put it on the table on top of the English homework.

"Don't worry about that," she said with a sigh, when Lovino kind of glanced at the papers. "I'll tell the teacher that you just need more time, and I'll help you tomorrow, okay? It's just...tonight's been kind of...you know." she said, biting into a Madeleine. Lovino nodded and took one as well. They sighed in unison.

"...now what?" Lovino asked. Lili leaned back against the couch.

"Well, my aunt and uncle went out to their friend's baby shower, and they won't be back for another hour. Vash thinks we're doing homework, and unless you have to go...do you want to just...talk?" she asked, kind of awkwardly, since she'd never 'talked' with a boy other than Vash before. Lovino frowned, but said sure. Lili could tell that he _needed _somebody to talk to.

"To make it easier, le'ts play Truth or Dare." she suggested.

"Sure." he said, and Lili started.

"Truth or Dare?" she asked, chewing her cookie.

"Truth." Lovino answered. "...are you going out with Antonio?" There was a long silence, where Lovino seemed to get redder and redder.

"...I guess so." he finally answered, and Lili nodded.

"Truth or Dare?" he asked.

"Truth."

"Are you in love with Vash?" Lili choked on her biscuit. After a bit of coughing, she sipped her milk.

"Uh...this is a _secret _game, right? Like...I promise not to tell _anybody, _and you promise not to tell _anybody_, not a soul, not even a rock, or a bird, or your pillow_?" _she asked, staring at Lovino seriously. He nodded emphatically.

"Well...then, yes." she admitted.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Why are you embarrassed about your relationship with Antonio?" Lovino frowned down at his cookie, his cheeks pink.

"Well...well...you won't tell anyone, right?" he asked Lili seriously, and she promised not to. "He used to babysit me and my brother. He's actually older than the other kids in his grade, because he flunked some classes, so he was brought down a grade...or maybe two, I'm not sure. But...I had a crush on him when I was...like, eight. And...he did too. Like, he liked me."

"But...you were only..." Lili began, and Lovino nodded.

"I know that. Anyways, so...plus it's just embarrassing, because, well, we're two guys, and that's not exactly...anyways, and he's really touchy-feely and stuff, and he wants to do things in public and whatever, and then it's embarrassing...yeah." he finished, biting into his cookie. Lili nodded, feeling like she could relate to Lovino.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you going out with Vash? If not, why not?" he asked, and Lili sighed.

"I'm not. It's because...well, we're related. And we kind of look similar, so people would think we're really brother and sister...but it's not just that. If we went out, Auntie and Uncle would find out, and then I'm not sure what they'd do...because, think about it: two dating teenagers living in the _same house, _in the _same room_! It would never happen. Plus, it's too embarrassing to ask him, in case he doesn't like me that way. And we've known each other since we were...like, six or something-" Lovino cut her off.

"Well, I think it's kind of _obvious _that he loves you, too. You should just stop worrying and _do _something. You don't have to tell your aunt and uncle about it, either." he said, shrugging. Lili blushed and shook her head.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth." Lili nibbled on another Madeleine.

"...are you in **love** with Antonio?" Lovino turned red again.

"You have to answer." Lili reminded him with a grin, and he scowled.

"Well..._no, _because he's...he's so dumb! He's completely stupid, and he has no sense of personal space, and he _laughs _and _smiles _all the damn time, it's so annoying! Plus he's all tall and good-looking, so he flirts with everybody without even realizing it. And then he keeps worrying about me and asking me stuff and doing this and that and whatever, and it's so damn hard to even _think _when he's nearby because he's talking or hugging or just being _there, _standing there and being distracting. Plus, he's the most irritating, teasing dumbass ever, and I could _never _see myself loving him. So there." Lovino ranted. Lili laughed lightly.

"You're lying, Lovino. You love him, it's obvious! Look at this, you turned red just by _talking _about him! And all those 'bad' things about him are probably the things that make you like him so much, am I right?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at him. Lovino stared at her.

"How is Antonio's _stupidity _supposed to make me love him?" he asked finally, and Lili grinned.

"Come on. Being kind of silly or air-headed or stupid can be cute sometimes, right? And you said so yourself, he's got no sense of personal space...but I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want somebody who doesn't like to touch, right? Plus, you just said that he distracts you just by being _near _you. I bet that's because you _looooooove _him so much." she said, giggling at Lovino's blushing face.

"Not true!" he protested, flinging a pillow at Lili, who ducked.

"It's true, and you know it." she said, completely taken aback by how easily she could talk with Lovino. It had only been about twenty minutes just talking with him, and already she felt like they were old friends.

"Well, whatever. Think whatever the hell you like. Oh, call me Lovi, okay? Everybody does." Lovi said, and Lili nodded.

"Okay. You can call me Lili." she joked, and he grinned before asking Truth or Dare?

"Truth."

"Come on! We haven't done a single dare yet!" he laughed, and Lili smiled.

"Well, okay. I'll take one dare, and I'll do it, but I get to choose when to do it, okay?" she asked. Lovi scowled, and thought about this.

"It has to be at school when I can see you do it, and it has to be this year, okay?" he specified. Lili nodded.

"I dare you to tell Vash you love him." Lili frowned, blushing.

"Fine, but _you _have to kiss Antonio in front of the _whole _school, or at least in front of both our classes. Okay?" she asked. Lovino turned red and was about to protest when Lili shoved a cookie in his mouth.

"Fine." he said, his voice muffled by the biscuit. Ten minutes later, Lovino left, saying he'd come back in two days to finish the 'English crap'. Lili saw him out, put the cookies away, cleaned up the papers and books, and then flopped down on the couch, mentally exhausted.

Even though it was far away, the thought of telling Vash about her feelings was daunting even now. She couldn't even imagine his reaction. In the worst case scenario, he bitch-slapped her, called her an incestuous freak, and told his parents.  
>In the best case scenario, he kissed her, and then...Lili couldn't even imagine further than that. She turned red and clenched the pillow in her hands even thinking about it. A while later, she felt a cool hand on her head, ruffling her hair lightly. She rolled over and looked up at Vash, who was smiling shyly down at her.<p>

"Did you fall asleep?" he asked softly. Lili blushed and nodded, sitting up.

"Thank you. I'm sorry about earlier, by the way." She said quickly, fidgeting and looking at her knees. He just shrugged, but he didn't seem mad.

"I'm just glad you're okay. You still want to go to Alfred's party tomorrow, right?" he asked as they walked upstairs together.

"Yes please. It's tomorrow, isn't it?" Lili asked, and Vash nodded.

"That's right. It starts at seven, so finish your homework before then."

"Right."

"I'm...I'm glad you're happy, Lili." Vash said, a faint blush on his cheeks. Lili smiled.

"I am. But I'm always happier when I'm with you." she said honestly.

Vash could barely contain his inner cries of 'CUUUUUUUTE!'

Seychelles knocked on Francis' door the next morning. She had argued with herself the whole night about whether or not to talk to him, and she'd finally decided that it was better to ask him about it instead of pretend that it never happened.  
>She was nervous about talking to him, but after seeing him kiss Matthew the day before, she thought she ought to, just to see what he had to say. She didn't think of herself as his 'girlfriend', she just thought that since he seemed intent on making her his 'lover', she should know whether or not he wanted <em>Matthew <em>to be his 'lover' instead. Francis answered after the third knock.  
>His face brightened when he saw Seychelles, but then he seemed to remember what she'd seen the last time they'd been together, and he sighed.<p>

"_Bonjour_, Seychelles. What's up?" Seychelles bounced on the balls of her feet, feeling happy to see him, but also annoyed by his casualness.

"'_What's up' _is that I'm wondering if you still want to date me." Okay, not smooth at _all_, Seychelles, geez... Francis leaned against the doorframe, crossing one foot over the other as he regarded her curiously.

"Of course I do. Why are you doubting my affections suddenly?" he asked with a charming smile. Seychelles glared at him.

"Why do you think? I saw you kiss Matty! I know you're bi, but honestly, if you want to date me, you're gonna have to shape up a little! You know, respect me, etcetera..." Francis frowned slightly.

"I do respect you. I respect how _magnifique _you look this morning," he said, stepping off the doorstep, his body language plainly showing he was in the mood for some early-morning lovin'. Seychelles raised her eyebrows, not buying it.

"Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do with you!" she huffed, tossing her head. Francis grinned suggestively.

"What do you _want _to do with me, Seychelles? I'd love to know..." Seychelles crossed her arms, looking at him sternly, although part of her was dancing around cheering and cartwheeling; Francis was _flirting with her! _Not that that was abnormal, but still...yay!

"You still haven't explained why you kissed Matthew yesterday." Seychelles reminded him, and Francis sighed.

"He's a friend of mine, okay? He was down, that's all. Plus, he tastes like maple syrup, and I needed a pick-me-up."

"If you want a pick-me-up, come to _me_." Seychelles said without thinking. As soon as she realized what she'd just said, her eyes widened, and she ran away, ignoring Francis who called her name.

"I can't believe I just said that, I can't believe I just said that, I can't believe I just said that...Aaaaaahhhhhh ohmygod..." Seychelles was mumbling to herself the whole way to school, blushing bright red. She was so distracted she ran headlong into Lili, almost knocking her over, except Vash caught her.

"You should be more careful, you know." he said crossly, making sure Lili was okay, before continuing on his way, starting an argument with Roderich, who suddenly appeared.

"Sorry about that, Lils. I wasn't looking." Seychelles apologized. Lili shook her head.

"It's okay, I'm fine. You look..." Lili took in Seychelles' blushing, flustered appearance, fidgety feet, and wide eyes.

"You look like you've just done something huge by mistake." Lili decided, and Seychelles laughed. "Correct, as usual," she began as they walked together to class.

"I went to talk to Francis just now,"

"Ooh, was he dressed?"

"Of course he was, silly! ...Well, actually, his shirt was open...but more importantly, I was talking to him, and then I got distracted, and I basically told him that when he wants to kiss somebody he should kiss _me." _Lili gasped, then hid a smile behind her hand.

"So...is that bad? It's like you asked him out. Or said you're open for business, but..."

"I know, I know! But I didn't _mean _to say that, I don't even know how much I like him! I mean, I _like _him, but I like Arthur too...he's the hottest math tutor I've ever had! But...but now what's he gonna think! _C'est impossible, _I can't _possibly _talk to him now! What should I do?" Seychelles asked frantically. Lili frowned, then patted her friend's shoulder.

"It'll be fine, Sey. Trust me. Just act normal, but if you still feel awkward and he can tell, maybe he won't talk about it for a bit. Just...just go with the flow. Fight fire with fire! No guts, no glory!"

"You're just full of good advice." Seychelles said monotonously, rolling her eyes. Lili laughed.

"I know. It's a gift." she joked as the bell rang.

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><p>Hope you like the new chapter! I'm trying to update all my ongoing stories before I go to Kelowna for the weekend...I should be packing, but I'm on a roll here! WOOOOO! :D<p> 


	9. любов

**любов**

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><p><strong>**this chapter contains the fan-made<strong>** character, Scotland. His name is not official, and he is currently not a character of Hidekaz Himaruya's webcomic.**

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><p>"Arthur, you're coming tonight, right?" Arthur looked up from his book, <em>War and Peace, <em>to see Alfred leaning on his desk, grinning. Arthur sighed, carefully marked his page, and closed his book.

"Surprisingly, I have nothing better to do, since my soaps have been cancelled for today... So I suppose I could drag myself over." he said, and Alfred slapped him on the back and cheered.

"Awesome! This party's gonna be the best ever! Glad you're coming, see ya there at seven!" he said before leaving the empty classroom for football practice. Arthur rolled his eyes and stood up as well, placing his huge book into his bag. He walked out of the classroom, down the hall, and out of the school.

The cool autumn breeze ruffled his hair, and he frowned slightly when he recognized the smell of cigarette smoke. He hadn't thought that anybody in school smoked... He rolled his eyes and began walking home.

It took him a few minutes of sniffing and scowling to realize that the smell was becoming stronger. He looked around, but couldn't see anyone with a cigarette. Deciding that it must be his imagination, Arthur kept walking down the path that led to his house.

He decided to bake scones for Alfred's party; after all, everyone else would be bringing chips, pop, and probably alcohol, so he didn't want his contribution to be overlooked. He had just decided to bake cranberries into the scones when his keys dropped out of his bag. He turned to pick them up, but they were gone. And he could see feet.

He raised his head, yelled and jumped back.

"Dropped these?" Arthur's keyring was swinging from a long finger at the end of a long arm. A cloud of smoke blew into Arthur's face as he glared up into the face of his brother.

"Why the hell are you here? I thought you and the other bugger were abroad." Arthur snapped, reaching for his keys. Angus raised his hand, dangling them out of Arthur's reach. Not for the first time since he'd been born, Arthur seriously wished that he was taller. Or that Angus was shorter, at least.  
>Angus took another drag from his cigarette, then flicked it to the ground before stepping on it.<p>

"Naw, I came home early. I thought you'd be glad to see me, numpty." he said, his cynical expression clearly expressing that he was being sarcastic. Arthur glared up at him angrily, taking in his rough, masculine features.

"Mum and Dad don't know you're back, do they? You've got nowhere to stay -they turned your room into a library." Arthur said, hoping against hope that Angus would have to go away again. But no. The taller boy smirked down at Arthur, the breeze ruffling his dark red hair.

"Don't worry, little bro. Am'no goin anywhere. I already talked to 'em. I'm 'aving _your _room. You're sleeping on the couch." he said with a grin as they started walking to their house. Arthur swore in outrage and snatched his keys back. Angus lit another cigarette.

"You are going to die from that." Arthur commented irritably as he waved a cloud of smoke out of his face.

"Stop nippin', mother." Angus said, shoving Arthur off the path. Arthur silently cursed him with a thousand nightmares of terrible pain, and returned to the path, being sure to step on Angus' foot as he did.

"So I heard you're going to a party tonight. Feel sorry for the poor bugger who invited you." Angus said as they passed Lili and Vash, who were crossing the path ahead of them. Arthur turned his laugh into a cough when Vash covered Lili's ears upon hearing Angus' foul language.

"Does that clatty bint still live here?" Angus asked after a while, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his tight jeans. Arthur frowned and flicked some dirt out from under his nail.

"Who are you talking about? Which girl?" he asked, feeling rather sorry for whoever it was; if Angus had some kind of history with this 'dirty girl', she would probably be seeing him soon. Angus exhaled another cloud of smoke and tugged on his earring as he tried to remember her name.

"Bells...Bella?" he said finally, and Arthur frowned. To lie to Angus or not?

"I think she's around..." he said vaguely, knowing full-well that she and her brother lived only two blocks from them.

"Oh yeah? She was a bit of a blether, last I saw her."

"She does talk a lot." Arthur observed as they turned another corner, now walking down the lane that led to their red-bricked house. The rest of the walk was silent, and Arthur could not wait to get away from Angus, and his long-legged, loping walk, and his nasty cigarette smoke, and his wicked grin, and his pierced ears, and _especially _his cynical criticism of everything Arthur did.

As soon as they got inside, Arthur shut himself in the kitchen and began to busy himself with the scones for Alfred's party. But he was so angry that Angus was back, that he'd have to sleep on the _couch, _and that Angus was probably going to cause trouble for his friends, that he made some mistakes. After dropping the second egg into the batter with its shell smashed all over the place, Arthur swore and tossed out the floury mess, and began again.

He wanted to make scones, but he didn't want them to be gross: Alfred might not like them. He turned on the radio and hummed along to _Hungry Eyes _as he stirred the codliver oil in with the sour cream before the molasses began bubbling. He had always wondered why the recipe books in stores never used any tartar sauce in scones; it made them so much firmer! Finally, he put the trays of scones into the oven, and cracked the kitchen door open slightly, checking to see if Angus was around.

Reassured that he was upstairs, Arthur sat down on the sofa and opened his book again, still annoyed that his soap opera had been cancelled.  
>But, to him, <em>War and Peace <em>was rather like a soap: One moment, it all looks bleak; the wife is in labour, the husband MIA, quite probably dead, but then- he arrives alive, just in time to find his wife dead, his newborn son crying in the arms of the doctor.  
>Pierre marries the most beautiful woman around, under great pressure from his carnal urges and her father- only to realize that she's cheating on him. He then duels the other man, shoots him, and wishes never to see his wife again.<br>Meanwhile, a first-time soldier develops a rather romantic attraction to his sovereign, while simultaneously he is betrothed to his childhood love, who then insists that he must be free to make his own choices, and is then proposed to by his good friend. Honestly, you really don't need _Friends _when you've got _War and Peace._

Arthur glanced out the window just in time to see Angus loping down the street towards Bella and Anton's house. Arthur sincerely hoped that they weren't at home. He wasn't sure exactly what Angus had meant when he had said that he had a 'history' with Bella, but he certainly hoped that it hadn't been anything serious: Angus had been gone (thank the heavens) for three years, making Bella around thirteen or fourteen the last time they'd seen each other, and Angus would have been nineteen.

As Arthur went to check if the scones were burnt, he _sincerely _hoped that nothing had happened between his brother and his classmate. Because if it had, Bella would have been a minor at the time, Angus an adult. That's illegal. Arthur opened the oven, welcoming the savoury waft of warm air that greeted him as he examined his lumpy, interestingly-shaped creations. He smiled slightly as he thought of how pleased Alfred would be when he ate them. He'd probably beg Arthur to make them more often.

"_Ciao._" Lovino said, glancing up as Spain closed the door of the convertible and sat down.

"Hey Lovi! You're going with me to Alfred's party, right?" Antonio asked, smiling brightly. Lovino drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and looked in the mirror, scowling as a group of girls took their _Goddammned time _walking behind them.

"If you're gonna make me, I can't exactly say no, now can I?" Lovino asked, well aware that if he said he _wouldn't _go, Antonio would say nevermind, and they'd spend the evening together anyways. But he kinda wanted to go..._sort of. _And Lili had made him promise. Annoying girl...

"Great! You know, I didn't know you could drive!" Antonio said, watching as Lovino turned around to yell at the people in his way. Lovino readjusted the wing mirror and looked at Antonio in surprise.

"I _am _legal, you know. I learned to drive last year. Technically I'm only supposed to drive people related to me right now, so if we get pulled over, pretend to be my-"

"Husband?"

"_Brother,_ damnit!" Lovino said angrily, blushing. Antonio began to laugh as Lovino took off the hand break and revved the reverse.

Nobody before or since has stopped laughing as quickly as Antonio did the moment that they shot backwards straight through the parking lot.

Antonio quickly did up his seatbelt, his knuckles white where he held on to the sides of the seat as Lovino spun the wheel, swerving around some screaming boys and sped out of the lot.

"It's turning red -IT'S TURNING RED!" Antonio yelled, but Lovino slammed his foot down on the gas and they rocketed through the junction to a symphony of beeps and honks. Antonio stared at Lovino as they began swerving randomly from one lane to another; the Italian's face was focused, as though he was concentrating hard.

"Come on, come on.." he muttered as they accelerated steadily towards the car ahead of them. When they were within one foot from the other car's bumper, and Antonio was bracing himself for impact, Lovino spun the wheel and they swerved around him, going into the wrong lane for a few minutes before zipping back around, knocking over somebody's garbage bins as the back half of the red convertible twisted around, following the front half. Antonio locked his jaw to stop himself from yelling every time they came within an inch of hitting something; he would have lost his voice if he did.

"Left here, right?" Lovino asked swerving into the left-turn lane as the lights changed orange.

"Right."

"Right?"

He spun the wheel, making a right-angle turn in the middle of the junction.

"LEFT! LEFT LEFT LEFT!" Antonio covered his eyes as a tumult of honking broke out. He felt himself spinning around, rocking from side to side, and then...

"What's wrong with you?" Lovino asked. Antonio opened his eyes. They had, somehow, managed to turn left.

"How...how did you turn left?" Antonio asked, finally finding his voice. Lovino looked at him as if he was stupid.

"I did a U-turn, duh." he said as he zoomed around a mail van, giving the mail man a heart attack as the red convertible came within an inch of his leg.  
>Antonio stared at Lovino.<p>

_A U-turn...in the middle of a junction...in a red light..WHY THE HELL DID ANYBODY LET HIM PASS HIS TEST? _

Finally they screeched to a halt outside Antonio's house.  
>"We're here, bastard." Lovino said, and Antonio shakily stepped out. His knees almost gave way beneath him as his feet met the ground. He almost felt like kissing the pavement.<p>

"T-Thanks for the...ride, Lovi." he said weakly, and Lovino scowled, but kind of smiled.

"I'll pick you up at 7:00. You'd better be ready, stupid."

"...And you're driving?"

"Of course. Did you think that we're gonna _walk _there? It's the other side of the school! Idiot."

"...right." Antonio wasn't sure his heart could withstand another death-defying experience in one day.

"Bye." Lovino said, looking over his shoulder as he screeched out backwards into the middle of the street.

"Bye! ...Get home safely!"

"What kind of shit is that?" Lovino asked angrily before swerving around, screeching off down the street. Antonio walked towards his front door, but his knees gave way beneath him before he got there.  
>His mother found him there half an hour later, sprawled on the gras<em>s.<em>

"Are you ready?" Vash called.

"Yes, I'm coming!" Lili said, trotting down the hallway to the front door, where Vash was waiting.

"Won't you get cold if you're just wearing that?" he asked, looking at Lili's short dress and stockings, and handed Lili his dark green sweater.

"Thank you." Lili said, putting her arms through the sleeves of the furry zip-up hoodie. It was much too large for her; the sleeves ended past her hands, and the bottom was below her butt, but it was warm, and it smelled like Vash.

"Well...you look nice." Vash said, blushing slightly as he opened the door.

"Thank you! You look very handsome, too." Lili said, and Vash turned around to hide his blush, covering by calling to his mom and dad that they were going.

"Have you got the chips?" he asked as they began to walk down the lane together.

"Yes. I wasn't sure if I should bring Doritos or Lays, so I brought both. Do you think that's okay?" Lili asked, worried, and Vash nodded.

"It's dark. We'd better stick together so we don't get separated." he said, taking Lili's hand. To be honest, he just wanted an excuse to hold her hand and walk together with her. Lili herself was glad of the darkness; it hid her blush and her ecstatic expression of bliss that the touch of Vash's skin gave her.

As they walked together up the dark lane, she remembered how, so many months ago, she'd done the same, only in the other direction, later at night, and alone. It felt so much better to be together with Vash than alone, with nobody at all.

They stopped at Seychelles' house on the way, and she opened the door and smiled, wearing dark blue shorts under a short dress, covered by a dark red hoodie.

"Hey," she said cheerfully after saying goodbye to her mother, falling into step with Lili, who she hugged, and Vash, who she smiled at. "Are you excited?" she asked, and Lili nodded.

"Yes. Do you think people will be drinking?" she asked, a little worried. Vash shook his head.

"No. Alfred doesn't provide a lot of alcohol at his big parties. It's the little ones, with just a few people, where people get really drunk. There will be some beer and stuff, but I don't think a lot of people will be drinking." he said, and Seychelles nodded, glad; she had never drunk alcohol before, and she wasn't sure she wanted to get drunk and embarrass herself at her first school party.

"This is the right place, right?" Lili asked for the fourth or fifth time, and for the fourth or fifth time, Vash replied yes, it is. They walked up the drive, where a number of cars were already parked. Lili smiled when she recognized Lovino's red convertible; he'd told her about how he'd driven Antonio home, and how Antonio had been trembling from gratitude and joy.

They reached the door, where red, white, and blue balloons were attached to the handle. Lili pressed the doorbell, then stepped back, nervous. She took Vash's hand and he squeezed it, knowing that Lili was nervous of strangers, and she didn't know everyone at the party. The door swung open, and Alfred, grinning, wearing a party hat, a Nirvana t-shirt, and jeans.

"Hey! C'mon in!" he said, ushering them in and giving them all a half-hug. They took off their shoes, and followed him into the living room, where 15+ people were already milling around, eating, laughing, talking, and drinking. There wasn't a lot of room to sit down, so Lili ended up squeezed up against Vash, and Seychelles squeezed next to them and the couch.

Lovino looked over from his place across from them next to Antonio, who was talking animatedly with Gilbert and Francis, and saw both their flushed cheeks. He caught Lili's eye and looked pointedly at her before winking. Lili blushed redder and shook her head at him, but laughed a little.  
>Alfred's huge stereo system was pounding out 3oh!3, and people were absent-mindedly singing along; <em>Aishiteru! Te amo! I love you! Je t'aime! Everywhere I go, I always say the same thing! <em>A few minutes later, Arthur turned up. Alfred eagerly went to the door (a few people thought, a little _too _eagerly) and swung it open.

"Sorry I'm late, I was reading a book and lost track of time." he said as soon as the door opened. Alfred laughed, said it was just like him to do that, and welcomed him in.  
>"Oh, and I brought some scones. I made them myself." Lili, who was watching, could tell that Arthur was quite proud of his scones, and expected Alfred to also be proud of him. Alfred looked at the box of scones, grinning.<p>

"Thanks! You go sit down, I'll put these on a plate. Arthur sat down in the place Alfred had just vacated, and began talking with Vash about the upcoming Halloween celebrations at school.

Alfred came back and handed out the scones. Lili took one, and bit into it. Once her teeth had dug through the granite-like crust, some uncooked flour filled her mouth, along with the general taste of something that was once a scone, but then was cast into a vat of sweaty underpants, codliver oil, and expired medicine. And there was also a burnt cranberry. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and Vash took the scone from her, looking accusingly at Arthur (who didn't see) and bit into it himself.

That one scone went all the way around the circle to Arthur, who finished it off. Nobody else could handle any more than one bite. Alfred choked down three bites under the hopeful gaze of Arthur, then gave up. Ten minutes later, Bella and Anton knocked at the door. Arthur immediately followed Alfred to see them in, looking worried. When they entered the room, everyone who saw them gasped; Anton had a black eye and a split lip. Bella had bruises on her arms, and a visible handprint on her cheek, accompanied by a scratch.

Seychelles and Lili looked around in alarm, and Ellie was already on her feet, rushing over to Bella, who smiled at her.

"I'm okay, really. It's okay," she kept saying as Ellie jabbered away in a low voice, looking worriedly at her bruised face.

"What happened?" Arthur asked Anton quietly, and Anton scowled.

"Your brother, Arthur. You should have told us he was back." Arthur looked away.  
>"He only came back today. I didn't know he was going to do this..." Anton sighed and ran a hand through his wild hair.<br>"It's okay. I'm sorry for snapping, it's not your fault. I'm just annoyed." he said, and Arthur nodded, following them back into the living room, where Bella squeezed in next to Ellie and Lovino, and Anton leaned against the sofa by Mathias.

"What happened between you and Angus? I remember you telling me about him a few years ago, but I didn't know you actually..." Ellie drifted off, looking curiously at Bella, who sighed.

"Nothing _happened. _He just had a crush on me. I liked him, but I said that I would only date him when I was older. He's impatient, and he got mad. So I told my brother. They started fighting, and to break it up...I.."

"Is that why you kissed Anton?" Ellie asked in a low voice, and Bella sighed again, nodding slowly.

"Yeah. It was an accident, I didn't know what I was doing...but Angus stopped, called us nasty words, and left. Anton didn't talk about what happened for a long time, and I'd almost forgotten it until now. Angus seemed to think that now that I was older I would still be interested in him. But honestly, I think he's just bored and wanted something to do. He's always been restless." Bella said, and Ellie nodded.

"I agree. If you ask _me-_"

"You with all your Arthur/Angus incestuous fangirlisms?"

"_Yes... I_ think that Angus is just trying to get attention. _Arthur's _attention, specifically. I'm sure he just likes spending time with him, and doesn't like the idea of doing it _normally_."

"Of course." Bella said, rolling her eyes; Ellie's views were sometimes..._odd. _It was like, everybody who didn't have a girlfriend or boyfriend was obviously either gay or bisexual, or maybe they had a forbidden love for a relative.  
>Most of the time though...she was right.<p>

"There's some booze in the punch at the back, and then there's normal juice next to it," Alfred announced, sitting down next to Arthur, who asked how he liked the scones. Seychelles went up and got herself some punch, along with a few other people.

"Can we play Seven minutes in Heaven?" Ellie asked loudly. Several people groaned, but all the people who had a crush on somebody else in the room silently begged for everyone else to say yes.

"Sure," Alfred said finally, to the silent cheers of many of the guests, and to the groans of others.

"Spin the vodka bottle!" Gilbert exclaimed, grabbing the empty glass bottle that was lying near Ivan (who somehow had been invited, along with both his sisters).

"Hey, where's Francis?" Antonio asked loudly, and Alfred shrugged.

"He called and said...oh crap, I have to call him." he said, fishing his cellphone out from the pocket of his pants. Next to him, Matthew smiled shyly, looking over his brother's shoulder, hugging his large polarbear stuffed animal closer to him.

"Francis? Yeah. Yeah, come. Uh huh. Yeah, she's here. No... Not yet. Seven minutes in Heaven. Yup. Okay, see you soon." he closed his phone as people started discussing rules.

"Wait, which version are we playing?"

"Oh, come on! We have to play the _real _version, otherwise there's no point!"

"So what's the real version?"

"Two people go into a closet, both blindfolded, so they don't know who is in there with them. Then they have to make out with whoever's with them."

"What if they don't?"

"They _have _to, that's the point!"

"But why would they if they didn't have to?"

"Oh come _on! _Seriously? Imagine if you were in there, for seven minutes, with the chance to make out with somebody you really like! The fun part is when you come out and realize that it wasn't who you thought it was, and if it _was, _well then!"

"Okay, okay, we'll play that way."

"Everybody, close your eyes! It has to be a surprise!"

"Your eyes are open, Alfred!"

"That's because I'm 'God'. It's how you play."

"Fine, fine."

Alfred spun the bottle. Lili flinched when she felt him tap her shoulder. She opened her eyes and stood up, trembling a little bit with nerves; her _first kiss to somebody she didn't even know who it was! _ \

Alfred grinned at Lili and pointed at the open closet door just by her before he wrapped a bandana around her head so she couldn't see. She stumbled in, heart pounding and mind racing with worry. Alfred spun the bottle a second time. Lili tried to listen, in case anybody spoke, but nobody did. A few minutes later the closet door opened, and somebody else stumbled in.

"Okay, that's both of them! Does anybody have a timer?" Alfred asked loudly from outside. Lili heard somebody lock the closet door.  
><em>Damnit, I'm afraid of the dark. <em>  
>Lili tripped backwards over a shoebox and hit her head against the wall. She could hear somebody else in front of her also trip and stumble over what sounded like a vacuum.<p>

"Okay, seven minutes starts...Now! Make out!" Ellie called. Conversations resumed outside as Lili's pulse thundered in her ears. Not sure what to do, she bent over to itch the mosquito bite on her ankle, and accidentally hit her head on the door handle on her way up. She stumbled, and the other person's hands reached and steadied her.  
>Lili felt (with a surge of relief) the large hands of the other person...who was most definitely a <em>guy. <em>She straightened, but the other person slipped on an empty packet of Swiffer mop heads, crashing into her. Lili gasped as the boy's hand accidentally grabbed onto her breast. She heard an intake of breath and a whispered 'sorry'. Try as she did, Lili couldn't for the _life _of her recognize the whispering voice.

"Why do we have to keep our eyes closed?" Ivan asked, and Seychelles answered, "Because if we open them, we'll know who's in there! This way, it's more surprising!"

"Is there a punishment if they don't make out?" Feliciano asked loudly.

Feliks piped up, "Like, of course! There's _always _one. When I played a few years ago, the people would check on us, and if we weren't making out, they'd make us strip down and make out in front of _everybody. _It was totally embarrassing!" he said, and the others laughed.

Lili gasped softly; no matter _who _it was, she refused to be seen naked by so many people! She steeled herself, reached up and wrapped her arms around the neck of the boy whose hand was still on her chest (he couldn't find anything else to hold on to). As soon as she did, he dipped his chin down and kissed her cheek -missed. He tried again, this time kissing her right on the mouth.

They didn't exactly make out... Lili didn't want to 'make out' with _anybody _except for...well, you-know-who, embarrassing as that is, and the other person seemed reluctant to kiss somebody they didn't know. After what felt like an eternity, Gilbert called out that the seven minutes were up, and Alfred let them out of the closet. Lili stumbled out first, and she heard Seychelles gasp loudest when the boy behind her followed. Alfred removed their blindfolds. Lili opened her eyes to see...the kitchen.  
>She turned around, and...<p>

"Are you okay?" Seychelles' blurry face slowly came into focus. Lili groaned and closed her eyes again.

"No, wake up! Wake up, Lili!" she said, patting her cheek lightly. Lili sat up slowly, and the room span.

"What happened?" she asked, feeling ill. Seychelles smiled.

"You fainted!" she exclaimed. Lili frowned, confused, and turned her head. Vash was kneeling next to her, pale as a ghost. Lili stared at him. He stared back. Lili's eyes rolled backwards and she collapsed again.

"Well, she's out like a light. Next pair!" Alfred said cheerfully, and Seychelles hoisted Lili up to lean against Vash, who put shakily an arm around her, still pale as death.

Everyone closed their eyes once more, and once again two random people went into the closet. Seven minutes later, Hercules walked out, accompanied by Bella, who honestly looked like she'd just passionately made out with some kind of sex god. Which, going by the stories, she had. Francis arrived just then, and Seychelles kept her gaze on her feet.

Seven minutes later, Lovino and Feliciano stumbled out, looked at each other, and yelled in shock. Seven minutes after that, Mathias walked out, grinning, accompanied by a blushing and scowling Lukas. Ivan came out followed by his sister Natalya, and MeiMei came out with Matthew.  
>After that, Arthur exited the closet. He looked around to see who had been in with him. Francis walked out behind him. Both of them started yelling, wiping their mouths, swearing, and shooting each other filthy looks. But for the rest of the game, they didn't stop glancing at each other before swiftly looking away.<p>

Finally, everybody had been in at least once (poor Katyusha went in four times, once with Toris, then Antonio, then Kiku, then Matthew, who had also been in four times).

"Truth or dare!" Hungary exclaimed, and there were still more groans. They decided to take a break before playing. Seychelles helped herself to more punch. Then some more. Then some more.

"Why is this juice so addictive?" she asked, stumbling over to the couch, where she misjudged the distance between it and the floor and fell over it onto Alfred.

"Which one are you drinking from?" he asked, and Seychelled hiccoughed, pointing to the smaller of the two punch bowls.

"...That's the one with vodka in it."

"_What?_"

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><p><strong>*The party will continue in the next chapter*<strong>

**_Netherlands/Holland doesn't actually have a popular fan name, or an official name, so I'm just gonna use Anton. It means priceless, just so you know :P_


	10. LIEFDE

**LOVE, Absolutely**

Chapter 10, **Liefde**

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><p>Sorry for the slow update! Thank you, Fun-Sized-Otaku, for always bugging me to update!<p>

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><p>"I cannot <em>believe <em>this." Seychelles moaned, leaning on Lili who patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"How many drinks did you have?" she asked, and Seychelles rubbed her head.

After a few minutes, she shook her head and groaned, "I have _no idea, _Lils. _C'est possible..._ I drank like...like...I don't even know. More than eight."

"More than eight shots? Jeez, Sey, you'd better...take it slow, or something." Lili suggested, gently leaning Seychelles against the sofa. Seychelles moaned again, shutting her eyes as Lili put a wet cloth on her forehead.

"Don't worry about me..." Seychelles murmured before Lili sighed and stood up.

"I'll get you a glass of water," she said before walking into the kitchen. She poured the drink, biting her lip nervously. "Hey Lili," a shy voice she recognized immediately made her turn around.

"Hey, Lovi." she greeted the boy nicely, and he immediately looked more comfortable, as if he'd been nervous of addressing her.

"So, you kissed Vash." he said bluntly. Lili squeaked and flinched before clapping a hand over his mouth, blushing brightly.

"_Don't say that so loudly!" _She hissed, and Lovino pushed her hand away, smirking.

"What? Didn't you _like_ it?" he asked teasingly, obviously highly amused by her reaction.

Lili realized this immediately, of course, and countered, "Just as much as _you _like it when Antonio kisses you..." she responded, and Lovino predictably flushed red and scowled, stuffing his hands into his pockets and scuffing his foot on the linoleum floor.

"Don't say that..." he grumbled, and Lili smirked.

"What? Are you saying you _don't _like it when he kisses you? Runs his hands through your hair? Pulls off your shirt-"

"_Chigi, _stop it, stop it!" Lovino said in a panicked voice, his cheeks fire-engine red as he waved frantically at Lili, who started to giggle. Lovino rumpled his hair and looked at her in annoyance before grinning.

"I don't want to talk about Antonio right now..." he said as Lili popped a gummy worm into her mouth and raised her eyebrows at him. Lovino smirked, "_I _want to talk about your kiss...your kiss with-"

"Don't say it! Don't don't don't _don't_, Lovi!" Lili begged in a heated whisper, slapping her hand over Lovino's mouth again.

"You're bright red, y'know." Lovino said, her voice muffled against Lili's palm.

"Shut up." Lili hissed, and Lovino pushed her hand away for the second time, stretching before grabbing a chip.

"Honestly," he muttered before smiling at Lili. "He's your _brother_. Well, okay, no. He's your _cousin._"

"Second cousin."

"Whatever. You live together, Lils. You have to talk to him sometime, okay?"

"No, Lovi, I _can't_. I...I really can't," Lili begged, feeling like she was about to cry, "I...We just won't talk about it. Ever."

"But...But you liked it, right?" Lovino asked, and Lili blushed again, burying her face in her hands and turning away. "Come on. You did, didn't you?" Lovino persisted, ruffling Lili's hair.

"...no..." Lili mumbled, and Lovino laughed.

"You are the _worst_ liar." he said affectionately, and Lili raised her head to shoot a glare at him.

"You're so mean," she said, and Lovi rolled her eyes and smiled before leaning back against the counter again.

"Yes, well... I'm a mean boy who's going to make you confess to the guy you are _madly _in love with and just _kissed _how much you love him. I'm the bad guy who's going to _make you happier than you've been in your life_." he said with a roll of his eyes.

Lili patted his arm for no reason before wrapping her arms around her waist in a self-hug. She didn't say anything more, keeping her eyes focused on her feet before smiling slightly at Lovi and bringing Seychelles her cold drink.

"What did you do in there, watch a play?" Seychelles quipped as she noticed the icecubes were _tiny_.

"As a matter of fact, no." Lili retorted before apologizing about the icecubes. Lovi walked out of the kitchen, and raised his eyebrows at Lili before sitting down next to his brother. Lili watched him go, but her attention was caught by Vash, who stood up and walked past her, Antonio on his heels.

Vash walked to the kitchen to pour himself some more juice. After making sure that he was pouring the non-alcoholic punch, he sighed and glanced at his reflection in the microwave door before glaring at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Vash turned around. Antonio was leaning against the counter opposite him, the ever-present smile on his face unsurprisingly in place.

"What do you mean?" Vash asked. He had never spoken much with Antonio, and after seeing the idiot kiss Lili, he was quite sure that he wouldn't like him much anyways.

"I mean you look down. Sad. Y'know." Antonio clarified, and Vash raised an eyebrow before sipping his punch.

"Okay..."

"And I thought you might want to talk about it," Antonio continued, popping a chip into his mouth.

"With you?" Vash asked, "I hardly know you." Antonio grinned.

"So? Maybe that's better. Some people are better at talking to people they don't know than people they do know, right? Are you one of those people?" he asked, and Vash blinked.

"I guess so..." he said finally, and Antonio beamed, helping himself to another handful of chips.

"Well then. You kissed Lili."

"...Yes..." Vash noted that Antonio was _very _to the point...probably because he clearly couldn't read the mood..and clearly couldn't tell that Vash was uncomfortable talking about 'the incident'.

"Wow, you're blushing!" Antonio said with a big grin on his face. Vash cleared his throat and tried to compose himself.

"It's humid in here," he began, and Antonio looked around.

_Does he think he can _see _humidity? _Vash thought in part-wonderment as he watched Antonio, _...humidity that I LIED ABOUT, incidentally? What kind of stupid-_

"Isn't Lili your sister?" Antonio asked, and Vash sipped more punch to compose his thoughts. He was about to reply when he realised that Antonio had continued the conversation by himself; "Well, then again, Lovi and Feli kissed, so it's not that weird... but _they _got all grossed out, but you and Lili..." Antonio glanced at Vash, who scowled.

"We what?" he asked, and Antonio half-smirked.

"You looked like you liked it, that's all." he said. Vash choked on his punch.

oOoOoOo

"Lili, I hate to ask, but can you grab me some more water? I'm not sure I can stand properly..." Seychelles confessed, looking embarrassed. Lili smiled and picked up her glass, giving her friend a once-over. Messy hair, pink cheeks, dazed expression, unfocused eyes.

"Yeah, I think it's best you stay here." she agreed and walked towards the kitchen.

She had this odd feeling that she was forgetting something that she ought to remember. She frowned, trying to remember what it was as she stepped into the kitchen. She turned at the sink and poured water into the glass. It was when she turned to the fridge to get out some ice cubes that she remembered what it was the she had accidentally forgotten: Vash went in the kitchen. Lili remembered that as soon as she saw him standing there. Lili stared at him. Vash stared back before glancing at Antonio, who smiled at Lili, and tried to ease the tension.

"Hey! Are you ready to play Truth or Dare, Lili?" he asked cheerfully. Lili nodded slowly before blinking.

"Um...um...yes! Yes, I'm...um..." _Damnit! Goddamn...SHIT! Should I say 'excited' or 'happy' or...or..._  
>"Truth and Dare is going to be perfection!" she exclaimed finally, bright red in the face and clutching the glass of water like it was a lifeline.<p>

Antonio and Vash stared at her. Then Vash surreptitiously tried not to laugh. Lili turned around slowly and collapsed against the sink, feeling completely deflated.

"Okayyy..." Antonio said behind her, and she heard him escape out the door.

Which left her alone.

With Vash.

_...I...Can't...move...too...much...stress..._

She felt Vash pat her on the back gently before leaving. The place where his hand had touched her shoulder still warm and tingling, Lili took a huge breath and grabbed the ice.

"Thanks-" Seychelles said as Lili thrust the glass at her and collapsed to the ground in a small heap.

"I am _never ever ever ever EVER _doing that again, so you'd better be grateful, you drunk mule!" Lili moaned, leaning on Seychelles as she started to explain what had happen incoherently into Seychelles' shirt. Sey patted her on the head, with absolutely _no _idea what Lili was saying.

"Okay! Truth or Dare starts now!" Alfred announced as he emerged from the kitchen with an open coke in his hand.

"Are there any rules or...guidelines?" Arthur asked, and Hungary laughed.

"Of course not!"

"But... well, can we vote on like..._five _rules? Or restrictions or something?" Arthur pressed, with lots of the others nodding.

"Okay, sure." Alfred said, sitting down on the couch next to Ludvig and Kiku.

"Just...I guess, propose a rule you want, and then we'll vote on them." he suggested, and Arthur immediately proposed 'No sexual acts', which 99% percent of the guests agreed to. The 1% was Hungary, who, when questioned, insisted that her hand _had _been up, and they'd miscounted. (She'd actually kind of hidden her hand.)

Next Lovino suggested 'no drugs' to which the majority again agreed with. The last three rules were 'No serious injuries', 'No complete nudity', and 'No leaving the general property'.

"Who's going to start?" Feliks asked, and Hungary thrust her hand into the air.

"MEEE!" she cheered, and everyone laughed.

"Okay," she said, looking around the room with such a predatory look that quite a few people felt like her 'prey'.

"Um...Hercules!" she said, and the Greek boy glanced up at her from his position on the floor, where he was lounging, looking _very _relaxed (as per usual) in front of the couch.

"Truth or Dare?" Hungary asked, and Hercules replied Truth in a quiet voice that practically _embodied _the word 'chill'.

"Okay. Is Kiku a virgin?' Ellie asked in a determined voice. There was a gasp from everyone in the room as they all (even Seychelles, who was in a prone position) leaned forwards like you do while watching a scandalous soap opera. Kiku, of course, was blushing and stammering and whatever-elsing. Hercules glanced at him vaguely before replying 'no'.

The loudest 'OOOH!' Lili had heard in her life followed, and Hungary leaned back, crossing her arms with a smug expression on her face.

"Okay...It's my turn isn't it..." Hercules murmured, and he sat up slowly before looking around the room, just as slowly.

"Mmm...Bella...?"

"Yeah?"

"Truth or...dare?" Bella thought for a moment, then grinned and replied 'dare'.

In the time it took for Hercules to decide on a dare to ask her, several conversations were started and ended, and about ten people went to get more food. Finally, "If you were a lesbian, who in the room would you most like to marry?"

No surprise, everyone was shocked and grinning. Bella had turned pink, but now was looking around the room, giving all the other girls a once-over.

"Um...to _marry..._not get divorced?" she asked, and Hercules shook his head, his eyes closed.

"Um...I'd have to say...Well...Um...Katyusha." she said finally. Katyusha blushed and asked why, as Hungary (predictably) immediately started to imagine what Bella and Katyusha kissing would look like. She wasn't the only one; Kiku also seemed to be looking between the two of them, a blush on his face. Bella rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Well...Ellie would always be running off after other people and embarrassing me by stalking our friends..." she began, and Ellie laughed.  
>"...And...well, I don't know Seychelles and Lili very well...and Natalia..." Bella paled slightly at the glare Ivan's little sister gave her. "I don't think it would work..." Bella continued in a slightly quavering voice, "As for Katyusha... well, she's nice, and we don't fight, and she doesn't annoy me at all...Honestly, I wouldn't mind marrying her." Bella concluded, and everyone laughed.<p>

"Okay now...Antonio, Truth or dare?" she asked, turning to the Spanish boy who was sitting near her, a cat-like smile on her pretty face.

"Dare." he replied easily, and Bella twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she thought.

"Okay. I dare you to...kiss your best friends." he said, grinning wickedly. Once again, everyone sat forwards as Antonio stood up, grinning childishly.

"This is so intense!" Lili whispered to Seychelles, who (still nursing a faint headache) smiled and nodded.

"Okay...do boyfriends or ex-girlfriends count as best friends?" Antonio asked, and the others laughed.

"Nah, just your _best friends_." Bella repeated, and Antonio nodded.

"Okay. Um...there you are Gilbert!" he said, stepping over Mathias and around MeiMei to get to Gilbert, who had quite obviously just been foiled in his attempts to hide behind Ellie.

"No, stop it, you stupid idiot! Get away from the Awesome me!" Gilbert protested as Antonio laughed and leaned forward.

"Better suck it up and get it over with, G." Ellie said cheerfully. Gilbert glared at her, then rolled his eyes when he saw a camera in her hands.

"You are so typical, Ells, can't you just- mphh!" Antonio had seized the moment and pressed his mouth to Gilberts. There was a huge cheer among a _lot _of the girls and many of the guys, and then Antonio pulled away, wiped his mouth, and stood up as Gilbert frantically rubbed at his mouth, muttering angrily and swearing to 'get Antonio back'. Take from that what you will.

"Okay...Francis!" Antonio said, grinning and looking around at the French boy, who was sitting on the floor next to Ivan, who smiled sweetly at him before scooting away to give Antonio room. Seychelles sat forward, watching Francis' expressions intensely. He raised his eyebrows at Antonio, who put his hands on his friend's shoulders, leaned in, and pressed his lips to Francis'. He pulled away quickly, wiped his mouth, and returned to his seat, where Lovino was waiting, scowling deeply.

"Your turn, Toni," Francis commented, and Antonio looked up.

"Oh, right! Okay...Vash! Truth or Dare?" Lili looked up, staring at her cousin.

Vash stared at Antonio; _Don't tell me...this guy is so completely stupid that he would...? I have to choose really really carefully...if I choose Dare he might make me...Lili...no, I can't. But if I pick Truth...then...Lili...no. I can't do that either... But I can't back out, because then Lili would think... Jesus this is damn hard. Uh..._

"Um...truth..." he replied finally, and Antonio thought for a while, the silly smile still on his face.

Lili glanced at Lovino, and her jaw dropped in horror when she saw that he was staring back.

Grinning at her.

_Whispering in Antonio's ear._

**"MOTHER_ FUCK_!"**

Lovino stared.

Antonio looked around in surprise.

Vash looked as though he'd just witnessed Obama peel off a mask to reveal that he's really..._BATMAN! _

Ellie's jaw had dropped. So had the jaws of pretty much everyone in the room. Seychelles' jaw was so low, an entire tennis ball would have been comfortable in it. Lili's face slowly became flame red.

"...did she just swear?" Alfred asked after a very _very _long pause.

"Um...um...um...um..." Lili had no idea what to do.  
>She had to say something...<em>something<em>..._anything_...but..._? GAHAHAHAHHHH _

"Ah! Seychelles spilled her water!" Lili exclaimed finally,(subtly knocking over the glass with her foot, and in the same instance giving Seychelles a fiery glance.) Seychelles took the hint, although her act was quite unconvincing as she was still staring at Lili as though she'd grown two heads.

"Ah...yes! Yes, water everywhere... Um, sorry Alfred, we'll clean it up..." she stammered as Lili practically _threw _herself into the kitchen.

"...No biggie..." Alfred replied, still staring at where Lili had been sitting.

Lili pressed herself against the kitchen wall, and slid down to the floor. She kind of felt like throwing up.

"So...truth. Right." Antonio said into the silence after a few moments. Lili grabbed a cloth to mop up the spilled water, then leaned against the kitchen wall, not sure if she wanted to hear what the question and answer would be. She decided that either way, it would be better for her to stay in the kitchen until they were done; if she returned to the living room and dropped another F-bomb, she was pretty sure that she'd die in her sleep from stress.

So she sat against the wall, bit down on her fist, and scrunched up her toes to keep herself busy while Antonio asked, "Vash, do you have a crush on anybody in this house?"

"No." Lili tilted her head back and sighed. She knew she was supposed to be glad, for Vash's sake, because now he wouldn't be pestered with questions like 'Who do you like?', 'Do they have long hair?', and 'Is she on your left?'.

And yet.

There was a rather saddened feeling in her. Lili stood up and shook her head, walking back to Seychelles with the cloth. She began to rub at the spilled water vigorously, sure that she was just disappointed, because she'd never get a chance to tease Vash about his crush, or something. Not that she ever would. But still.

"Okay..." Vash murmured, looking around the room. Lili stood up again to return the cloth to the kitchen. She glanced over her shoulder and caught Vash's gaze on her. She paused, but he looked away, and instead asked Feliks if he'd ever go streaking.

"Like, of course!" was the answer, and the others laughed.

Lili rinsed the cloth and put it back by the sink before returning to the living room. She sat down next to Seychelles again, glancing sympathetically at her friend, who was having trouble seeing straight.

oOoOoOo

Seychelles glanced at Lili. She seemed tired, but also a bit sad. Seychelles nudged her thigh with her foot. Lili looked at her, and smiled.

"That is the most pathetically fake smile I've ever seen, Lili." Seychelles murmured flatly. Lili rolled her eyes and leaned back against the couch next to Seychelles, who patted her shoulder and looped her arm around Lili's.

"Gilbert. Truth or dare?" Vash asked. Gilbert glanced at Ellie, then smirked and replied 'Dare.'

Vash immediately said, "I dare you to change clothes with Ellie, and stay in them for the rest of the party." he said with a small grin. Seychelles giggled, and Lili glanced at her, a smile on her face. Ellie was laughing, along with most of the others. In fact, Gilbert was the only one not laughing. He was staring at Ellie's miniskirt and tanktop. Not to mention the stockings. And the heels.

"Seriously, I have to wear _that?_" he demanded, his face flushed. Ellie raised her eyebrows.

"Aw, what's wrong? Don't you think it's cute?" she asked, poking him teasingly. He shot her a look.

"Just because it's cute doesn't mean I want to wear it." he grumbled.

Vash heard that, and said, "You _have _to. It's a dare." Gilbert glared at him, then dragged Ellie off to the bathroom to change.

"Keep playing while we're gone!" Ellie called behind her.

"Okay, sweet! I wanna go!" Alfred said loudly, raising his glass.

"Okay, okay, go then!" Antonio said with a grin, and Alfred turned and grinned at Arthur.

"What the hell are you staring at me for, you bloody moron?" Arthur snapped, and Alfred's grin widened.

"Arthur, truth or dare?" he asked before taking a gulp from his drink. Arthur glared at him.

"Dare."

"This is gonna be good," Feliciano said with a big smile, and the others laughed.

"I dare you to... run down the street in a cape with your underwear on your head, yelling 'Alfred is the most super guy ever!' as loud as you can." Alfred challenged.

Arthur turned slightly green.

Six minutes later, Ellie and Gilbert, cross-dressing, emerged from the bathroom just in time to see Arthur shoved out the front door, with a bedsheet around his neck, and Union Jack boxers on his head.

"Go Arthur! Yeah!" Alfred cheered. Arthur, his cheeks and ears bright red, stumbled into the street, looked both ways, then began running.

"A-ALFRED IS THE... THE MOST SUPER GUY EVER!" he yelled, and everyone cheered loudly, watching him from the living room windows. Ellie rushed out of the house, Gilbert's jeans threatening to fall off, and began snapping away with her camera.

"Memories like this need to be caught on film!" she said happily. Gilbert, who was not even bothering to _try _walking in her high heels, marched up to her and hoisted the jeans back up.

Arthur returned to the house, moments later, muttering, "I hate this game. What the hell happened to 'no leaving the property'!" Alfred heard him and grinned. "Heehee! You forgot about it, so the dare still counts, yo!" He laughed and stuck out his tongue before running into the kitchen for more chips.

Arthur watched him go, laughing lightly. "That...bloody wanker..." he muttered.

* * *

><p>Hope you liked it! :D<p> 


	11. CARIAD

**Love, Absolutely**

Chapter 11, **Cariad**

* * *

><p>Sorry for the slow update! I know this chapter's a tad short, but the next one will be longer!<p>

* * *

><p>"Goodbye, Alfred! Thank you very much for inviting us!" Lili said shyly as she and Vash walked out the door. Alfred didn't hear, but Matthew smiled and stepped forward.<p>

"Thanks for coming." he said in a quiet voice with a shy smile. Lili and Vash smiled and left.

As soon as they were down the street, Lili felt herself tense up. She wasn't sure if she should talk to Vash about the party, or not. She didn't think it was such a good idea, so she kept quiet, looking at the ground, turning pink as she secretly replaying their kiss in her head over and over. Suddenly, Vash spoke up, and Lili flinched.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry for not asking before, but I was... thinking.." he said in an unnaturally loud voice.

"What?" Lili asked, surprised. Vash cleared his throat, not quite meeting her eyes.

"Uh... well, you fainted before, and I was wondering if you're... if you're okay." he said, and Lili understood.

"_Oh, _yes, I'm just fine, thank you. In fact, I'm... yes. No problems, none..." she rambled in a rather stilted voice.

"...Good." Vash said, and the rest of the short walk to their house was silent.

Meanwhile, Seychelles stumbled towards the door, leaning on the wall for support.

"Thanks for... for the... ah, _comment dire..? _The... the... bye!" she said finally, smiling beatifically at Alfred, who laughed and waved goodbye, before resuming his argument of unresolved-sexual-tension with Arthur.

Seychelles tripped out the door, and took a moment to steady herself, before looking up and down the street, trying to remember which way her house was. She decided that it was to the right, and took a couple confident steps in that direction, but two large hands on her waist made her stop.

"That's the wrong way, _chérie_." Francis said from behind her. He turned her around to face him. He looked at her carefully before nodding. "I'll take you home." Seychelles shook her head, trying to free herself from his grip around her waist as he started to walk.

"No, it's okay Francis. I'll be just fine." she said firmly. He smiled and let go of her, but the moment he did, she staggered. He shook his head and put his arm around her waist again.

"No, you're not. I'll take you to your house." he said, firmly closing the subject. Seychelles sighed.

"Alright, thank you, I suppose.." she said, grumbling. Francis smirked. Seychelles rolled her eyes, and looked away, trusting Francis to make sure she didn't fall.

She wasn't sure why she was reluctant to let Francis take her home. He was just being nice, surely, but... she couldn't help but remember what the last thing she'd said to him before this night had been:_ "You still haven't explained why you kissed Matthew yesterday." "He's a friend of mine, okay? He was down, that's all. Plus, he tastes like maple syrup, and I needed a pick-me-up." "If you want a pick-me-up, come to _me_." _She shook her head, embarrassed by the memory.

She looked up, wondering how close they were to her house, and realized that they were right in front of it. Francis stopped, and turned to look at her. Seychelles had trouble making out his expression in the darkness, but it became a lot easier when he suddenly bent down and kissed her cheek.

"_Bon nuit, _Seychelles." he said softly, not losing his usual charming tone. She nodded and smiled, giving up on her thoughts: she had had too much alcohol to trust them fully.

"Thank you." she said, and knocked on her door. Her mother opened it after the second knock, and began fussing about how late it was, and Seychelles' rumpled hair.

"Thanks Francis." Seychelles murmured as she watched him walk away down the lane.

"Get in." Lovino muttered as he unlocked the car and walked around to the driver's side. Antonio took a step towards the car as his mind screamed, _Lovino driving in the dark= CERTAIN DEATH. _Lovi sat down, and looked expectantly at Antonio, who hadn't moved. He scowled.

"Come on, stupid bastard, hurry up, or I'll leave you here!" he said in annoyance, turning the key so the engine hummed. Antonio sighed, and got in, seatbelting himself carefully.

"Okay, then-"

"Hey.." Antonio interrupted, and Lovino looked at him.

"What?" he asked, and Antonio grinned at him.

"Can we go a little slower this time?" he asked.

Lovino stared at him. Then he rolled his eyes, revved the engine, and reversed into the street in a huge curve. They sped off towards Antonio's house, and as Antonio held tightly onto the seat, he laughed, noticing that Lovino was going exactly _five _km/h less than he had on the way to the party.  
>Of course, they were still twenty above the speed limit, but Antonio still laughed, harder still as he thought about how Lovino must be restraining himself for his sake.<p>

"What are you laughing about? Shut up, you piece of shit!" Lovino muttered, blushing in the darkness as Antonio's laughter rung in his ears.

Four minutes later (a record), they screeched to a halt outside Antonio's house, giving a cat the shock of its life. Antonio opened the door and undid his seatbelt. He pretended to start getting out, to lower Lovino's guard, then turned around, leaned forward, and kissed him. Lovino's 'Hey!' didn't leave his mouth as Antonio opened his mouth, exploring, caressing, loving.

"Toni? Is that you?" A woman's voice called out the door. Antonio pulled away regretfully.

"Yeah, I'll be in in a bit!" he called, and Lovino turned redder.

"No you won't!" he said angrily, and Antonio blinked.

"You mean you want me to stay?" he asked hopefully. Lovino swore at him.

"No, of course not! You're going _now_!" he hissed, shoving Antonio out of the car.  
>Antonio's laughter followed Lovino as he revved the engine, U-turned, and sped away down the dark, residential street.<p>

"See ya later, Arthur! Thanks for the crappy scones!" Alfred called from the doorway. Arthur nodded curtly at him, and walked away, his hands in his pockets. He sighed as the chill of the night air settled around him, his breath appearing before him in a thin cloud of fog.

_Stupid party... I shouldn't have gone. Of all the humiliating, ungentlemanly antics... _he thought bitterly, but somehow he smiled. Just a bit, because it _had _been fun. He remembered Bella and Anton's bruised faces, and his smile turned into a frown.  
>Angus.<br>Angus was home, and as usual, he had already caused trouble.

A few minutes later, Arthur turned into his driveway, unlocked the door, and pushed it in. As he stepped forward and kicked off his shoes, he was met by the smell of cigarette smoke. He coughed, covering his nose, and rolled his eyes; 'secondhand smoke' was a superstition, according to his oldest brother.

"I'm home," he muttered, out of habit, but he did it quietly, not wanting Angus to hear him.

"You're late today." a sadly familiar, low voice came from behind him, as Arthur stepped into the hall. He spun around, and found Angus standing there, cigarette in hand, his expression darkly amused. Arthur glared at him, and sidestepped him, headed for the kitchen.

"Yes, I was at a party." he said shortly, busying himself by making some tea. Angus followed him into the kitchen, and Arthur watched him out of the corner of his eye as he walked in slowly, put out his cigarette, looked around cynically, then sat on the table, watching him.

"I saw Bella and Anton. You beat them up, didn't you?" Arthur asked, trying to be matter-of-fact, but his voice shook as he recalled the cuts on Bella's face, and Anton's black eye. He poured the tea.

"Naw, hardly." Angus said, and Arthur could tell just by his tone, that his brother was grinning. That he thought it was _funny. _Arthur took a sip from his mug of tea, and felt much better.

"You're going to get into trouble. You'll be arrested, I bet." Arthur said, shooting a glance at Angus, who didn't seem to be listening. He had stood up from the table, and was walking towards Arthur, his hands in his back pockets.

Arthur put down the tea, foreseeing that it might be spilt. He turned around, leaning against the counter. He tried to appear nonchalant and uncaring, but he couldn't hide his nerves as Angus stepped closer and closer.

"What? Back away, you stupid wanker." Arthur snapped. Angus spread his hands on the counter, either side of Arthur. He grinned.

"That minger in shag-me shoes won't do nuthin'," he said confidently, and his grin turned sadistic. Arthur was glaring at him with all the had, but it wasn't much. "...and neither will you, will you?" he said darkly, not wanting an answer.

The next day, Lili and Vash met Hungary on the way to school. She smiled brightly, a stack of papers in her arms, and handed one to them before excusing herself and chasing after Ludvig and Feliciano, giving one to both of them. Vash looked at the flyer.

**_CAMPING RETREAT, OCTOBER 16-20._**

_A fantastic and rare opportunity to take a short trip with your classmates! Campers will go to James Anderson lake, where they will participate in various activities, including but not limited to: camping, swimming, canoeing, hiking, kayaking, archery, rock-climbing, arts and crafts, cooking, survival activities, and much more! Sign up now outside the office! Only 200 dollars for this all-inclusive once-in-a-lifetime experience!_

Lili glanced at Vash. He looked at her. She was unable to contain her excitement. He sighed.

"Well, let's ask my dad if we can go, okay? If we do, we'll have to stick together, so I can make sure that nothing happens to you. I don't want you to catch your death of cold after falling in the lake, or something like that." he sighed, folding the flyer up and putting it into his pocket. Lili nodded, but she still bounced as she walked, already excited to go.

For the next week, nobody spoke of anything other than the trip. After asking a lot of people, Ellie had announced that _nobody _was absolutely not going. That only made Lili more excited to go: she had never gone camping in her life, and she considered it a quintessential life experience.

Seychelles seemed to feel the same way, and almost every sentence she said contained the words 'camping'. She wasn't the only one, though: Alfred seemed to have taken the idea to heart, and was all over the place with Ellie, posting flyers, interviewing students, organizing meetings with teachers, the whole thing.  
>Another one who was just as excited was Arthur, who saw this as a perfect opportunity to spend four days away from his brother. Everyone was getting excited, and the whole school buzzed with enthusiasm.<br>The moment that Vash's parents said 'yes', Lili ran over to tell Seychelles. The two girls spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the park, talking, laughing, and pretending to plan 'get-them-together' ploys and missions.

Two days to go.

Everyone was packed, and only a few insurance/permission forms were late. Everyone had filled out cabin-buddy sheets, and Ellie was already planning the camp-fire sessions of T+D.

One day to go.

The teachers hardly bothered to attempt getting their class to pay attention. Everyone was talking about the trip. Seychelles' mother had given her a check-list to make sure she still had everything at the end of the trip, and she wasn't the only one to do so.

Day of the trip.

"Lili, we'll be late! Wake up!"

* * *

><p>Hope you liked it, trust me, the camping chapters will be really funny! Have a great day! :D<p> 


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